Recently the Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley introduced the most controversial Finance Bill of 2017 in the Lok Sabha under the name of Money Bill. Off late, it was also passed with the majority of the Bharatiya Janta Party which enjoys the lower house. It was again re-introduced after the Rajya Sabha recommended few amendments to it. As expected by the financial analysts and experts, the Lok Sabha rejected the amendments suggested by the upper house and sent off the bill in its actual form A.
The Lok Sabha introduced by Jaitley was opposed by the opposition parties of TMC, RSP, and BJD. The introduction of the amendments was termed by Opposition as ‘back door’ legislating which took away the right of Parliament to design laws. Jaitley defended the amendments by arguing that they were incidental provisions to the Finance Bill. He also added that the amendment was made to provide uniform service conditions to member judges. Check out few things which you need to know on the Finance Bill, 2017 so that you can be aware of its clauses and rules.
- The 2017 Finance Bill came along with a few new legislation and was passed on the 22nd of March, 2017.
- One among the new legislation which isn’t being appreciated is that the Income Tax Officers can now raid homes of people without requiring any reason for the same. This is something that is being opposed to.
- As per the 2017 Finance Bill, any property of the person can be seized provisionally during a raid. In 1962, as per the IT Act, the right was given to the authorities to seize assets that were all subject to raid.
- Previously, in Section 132 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, it was compulsory of the tax authorities to offer reasons which the person in question had undisclosed assets or was not willing to disclose information which the IT department needed.
- The Bill also offers the IT officers enough right to raid those properties where charity events take place. They can also look for information that they need to conduct those surveys.
- You’ll now require knowing your Aadhaar Card for filing your income tax returns. You also have to make it compulsory to link your Aadhaar card to your PAN card lest the latter becomes invalid post 1st July 2017.
- The Bill has eliminated the cap on how much money any company can donate towards a political party.
- With the 2017 Finance Bill, people can use the electoral bonds to anonymously donate to political parties.
- The Finance Bill 2017 also brings down the limit threshold of the cash payments from Rs. 3 lakhs to Rs. 2 lakhs.
- The Bill also allows the Centre to choose tribunals members through a gazette notification.
Therefore, you being a citizen of India should know what the Finance Bill 2017 entails and how its clauses affect the economy of the individuals and also the businesses.
Leave a Reply