Finance Bill's political funding tenet upends govt's vow to tackle graft
India grew at 7%
If the bill is enshrined, businesses won't have to name the political party they donate to in their profit and loss accounts
Despite the Indian government's pledge to increase transparency,they areaiming to enshrine a lawthat will make corporate funding to political parties more difficult to track.
Currently, corporationsthat give money topolitical parties must publiclydivulge whothey fund. But the Finance Bill's proposed change, tabled by the Indian governmentFebruary during the annual budget session, will no longer requirebusinesses to do so.
The Finance Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on March 22 amid mass walkouts by opposition parties.
Under the proposed alterations to the Companies Act, political parties in power can more easilyleverage the granting of contracts to interested parties. It will also be difficult to prove that an auction has taken place at all, making it possible for the government to award contracts without proving that any competitive process has taken place to earn the job.
The Finance Bill has been assailed by opposition parties as being the outcome of a unilateral process.
Money bill
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Another controversial change in the proposed lawisthe "money bill". If the new legislation is enacted, the "money bill"will bypass the Upper House, also known as the Rajya Sabha, and will go directly from the Lower House, or the Lok Sabha, to the President of India.
This legislation has been particularlycriticised by the opposition forstrengthening the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as its presence isn't particularly strong in the Rajya Sabha.
But the upside of the mini-sweep has been the government's decision to roll out electoral bonds. Business houseswill be incentivised to make political donations through digital payments and cheques to make the process of donations more transparent.
Aadhar card
The other big change announced on March 22 is the newly increasedimportance of Aadhar cards, a multipurpose national identity document. On March 22 it was announced that Indian nationals will have to furnish their Aadhar details while filing tax returns after July 1, 2017.
The Aadhar card requires citizens to give the government both their biometric information, or their fingerprints, as well as a retinal scan.
When asked on March 22if the government was making Aardhar cards mandatory--essentially asking, will Indians have to give the government their fingerprints and retinal scans,Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, "Yes, we are".
(WION)