Pending bills: finance ministry leads the pack

Sixteen working days and 116 pending legislations. The upcoming monsoon session of Parliament from August 5 to 30 will pose this challenge for the UPA, whose government has already made a record of sitting over the highest number of pending bills. Saubhadra Chatterji reports.

Sixteen working days and 116 pending legislations. The upcoming monsoon session of Parliament from August 5 to 30 will pose this challenge for the UPA, whose government has already made a record of sitting over the highest number of pending bills.

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Even as the government is pitching for further liberalising the economy, the finance ministry has the maximum number of pending bills, 13 bills, followed by human resource development ministry’s 12 bills. And most of these bills are related to financial or education reforms.

The finance ministry has on its platter bills like the insurance act amendment and pension fund bill that aim to boost the FDI in the two sectors. Key tax reforms like the Goods and Services Tax Bill and the Direct Tax Code Bills are also awaiting Parliament’s nod.

Although no key economic reforms related bill got passed in the past two years, the UPA is confident of getting the parliamentary nod for the insurance, the pension and the direct tax code bills in this session.

After the budget session, where the government could only pass two bills apart and the general and the rail budgets, finance minister P Chidambaram had remarked, “All bills in my view are equally important and I think an effort must be made to pass them.” But with time fast running out, the government will have tough time prioritising from the 116 bills.

The waiting list of the HRD ministry includes approvals for setting up educational tribunals, regulating foreign educational institutions and creating a national accreditation regulatory authority for higher education, among a host of issues.

According to a study by the PRS Legislative Research, 81% of the pending bills were introduced in the current Lok Sabha while the rest are spillover from the past.