Without holding any debate, the Lok Sabha on Thursday approved the Union Budget envisaging an expenditure of around Rs 45 lakh crore for the financial year 2023-’24, PTI reported.
The Demands for Grants and Appropriation Bills, which allocate funds for various ministries, came up in the Lok Sabha amid protests in both Opposition and treasury benches.
Oppostion MPs were demanding a joint parliamentary committee investigation into allegations of stock manipulation by the Adani Group. Meanwhile, MPs of the Bharatiya Janata Party were demanding an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his remarks that democracy was under threat in India.
The House was adjourned twice amid the ruckus. After the proceedings resumed at 6 pm, it took just 12 minutes to complete the formalities of passing the Bills. Speaker Om Birla applied the guillotine — a procedure that puts to vote the entire set of demands for grants of various ministries and departments without any discussion.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the Lok Sabha passed the Finance Bill 2023 also amid ruckus on the Adani controversy. Under the Bill, Sitharaman has introduced 20 amendments to laws dealing with taxation in the country.
With the passing of the Finance Bill, the Lok Sabha has enabled setting up an appellate tribunal for resolving disputes under Goods and Services Tax, or GST. Presently, taxpayers are filing writ petitions before High Courts in the absence of the appellate tribunal. The appellate tribunal had not been set up even after more than five years of implementation of the GST regime.
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