New Delhi: A stormy and largely unproductive monsoon session of Parliament ended on Thursday afternoon without key legislation – Bill for implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) – getting cleared.
The GST Bill creates a national sales tax to replace a model of levies in the 29 states. After it is cleared by the Rajya Sabha, the Bill will have to be passed by the Lok Sabha. Then, half of India’s states will need to support the reform.
Lawmakers of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) said they would take out what they called a ‘Save Democracy’ march, to protest against the Opposition’s obstructionist approach, which led to a squandered session.
Here are some facts after Parliament’s monsoon session was washed out by protests and adjournments.
1. Unrelenting Opposition protests, particularly by the Congress party, blocked legislative business for much of this 18-day session.
2. Each minute of Parliament cost around Rs 20,000, translating into an estimated total loss of Rs 35 crore of taxpayer money.
3. The Rajya Sabha works for an average five hours a day, the Lok Sabha for six; a total 11 hours in a day.
4. This was Rajya Sabha’s second least productive session in the past 15 years with only 2% of questions being answered orally and 1% of its productive time spent on legislative business.
5. Only one Bill could be passed by Parliament in this session, lowest in the last five years. 11 Bills were listed for consideration and passing during this session. However, only one Bill, i.e. the Delhi High Court (Amendment) Bill, 2014, passed by Rajya Sabha in the previous session, was passed by Lok Sabha during this session.
6. Lok Sabha passed four Bills in this session relating to atrocities against SC/STs, matters related to bouncing of cheques, pecuniary jurisdiction of High Courts, etc. No Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha.
7. Twenty five MPs of Lok Sabha were suspended by the Speaker for five sitting days. In the recent past, 17 MPs were suspended in Winter Session 2013, and 12 in Monsoon Session 2013.
8. An adjournment motion was discussed in Lok Sabha regarding the Indian Premier League (IPL) controversy and related matters. This discussion was held for nearly 5 hours, and accounted for 22% of the time spent on non-legislative business.
9. One discussion on calling attention to matters related to farmer suicides in Karnataka, and one on Sustainable Development Goals was held in Lok Sabha in this session. These contributed to 10.5% of time spent on non-legislative business.
10. This session has been one of the least productive sessions in the last 15 years with repeated disruptions in both the Houses.
