The government, on its part, is seeking to counter the opposition's offensive by bringing the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill.
Shortly after the Union Budget was announced, political leaders from across the spectrum reacted to it. Here's what some of our leaders said.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday alleged that Dinesh Trivedi, who resigned from the Rajya Sabha on Friday, took the 'House for a ride' and was 'allowed' to use the floor of the House for his 'devious political ends'.
Actor and Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan said she was happy that the House was discussing the most important ambassadors of the country, the film fraternity.
'Modi had not discussed demonetization with me prior to his announcement on 8 November 2016. 'I learnt of it along with the rest of the country. 'I was not surprised when he did not discuss the issue with me prior to making the public announcement. 'It fitted in with his style of making dramatic announcements.' A fascinating excerpt from Pranab Mukherjee's The Presidential Years: 2012-2017.
A BJP leader in Bihar on Thursday died while taking part in a 'Vidhan Sabha march' against the state's Nitish Kumar government, evoking allegations from senior party leaders that he was "killed in a brutal lathi charge".
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
The major thrust is towards Technical and Economic Cooperation.
Parliament proceedings were washed out for the fifth straight day, as members from parties including the Telugu Desam Party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, continued their protests on various issues.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said legislators across the country should be driven by passion, performance and procedural integrity, and desist from disrupting law-making bodies.
Jaitley said the government proposes to establish a National Testing Agency as an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation to conduct all entrance examinations for higher education institutions.
Several MPs came to the Upper House wearing masks and demanded curtailment of the ongoing Budget session, which is due to end on April 3, in view of the novel coronavirus scare, but the government seemed unwilling.
The government will notify categories of employees who will be excluded from the controversial tax proposal on provident fund withdrawals.
'It is flabbergasting to think that this heavenly region has, for decades, been coveted by India's aggressive neighbours,' says Claude Arpi after a recent visit to Ladakh. 'Wanting to use the newly created infrastructure to defend the borders after the clash of 2020 with China and the resulting standoffs, the home ministry is keen to boost border tourism to show that these areas are controlled by India.'
Faced with criticism for her latest Budget not doing enough for the poor, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's 2013 comment of poverty being a state of mind, and asked if this is the poverty she was supposed to address.
Anand Sharma said the PM 'does not have humility' and has not indicated that he will reflect and correct the course by either withdrawing his words 'insulting' Indira Gandhi based upon a 'fabricated report'.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday said it would have been good if Rahul had attended the budget session
There is no direct impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis on India in terms of bilateral trade but a surge in oil prices poses considerable risk to the economy, an analyst report said on Friday. International oil prices which have surged past $100 per barrel "pose risks to external stability and currency movement," a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report said. Russia has launched military operations against Ukraine, stoking fears of significant disruption in the region, including loss of life. The West is ramping up financial sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine.
During the day-long debate, the lines between science and religion often got blurred with many invoking religious texts and the contribution of 'rishi munis' to highlight India's tryst with the extra-terrestrial world.
'The government or the ruling party has indicated indirectly that you are not supposed to publish anything critical of the government or the senior functionaries of the government.'
Noting that while every MP has a constitutional right to speak in Parliament and express his/her views on various topics, he said it is also one of the foremost duties of every member to maintain decency and should not speak anything that would lower the dignity of Parliament and categorised as 'Contempt of the House'.
According to the third batch of supplementary demands for grants tabled in the Lok Sabha, approval is being sought for gross additional expenditure of over Rs 1.58 lakh crore.
'I am a human and humans tend to commit mistakes. To ensure that the party does not suffer due to my mistakes, I resign from the party, whose forgiveness I seek'
The government further said the gross tax revenue as a per cent of GDP is expected to increase to 12.1 per cent of GDP in 2019-20 and stabilise at that level in 2020-21 before climbing up to a level of 12.2 per cent of GDP.
Budget should raise revenues & reduce spending to increase capital expenditure.
The Reserve Bank's growth projection for next financial year is lower than 8-8.5 per cent projected by the finance ministry in the recent Economic Survey which was tabled in Parliament on January 31. Unveiling the bi-monthly policy, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said, "Recovery in domestic economic activity is yet to be broad-based, as private consumption and contact-intensive services remain below pre-pandemic levels."
The Lok Sabha suspended seven Congress members on Thursday for the remaining period of the Budget Session for "gross misconduct" and "utter disregard" for House rules after they snatched papers from the Speaker's table.
The agitational programmes include the 'Loktantra Bachao Mashal Shanti March' starting from Red Fort on Tuesday and a series of press conferences in 35 major cities across the country on March 28 and 29.
'They want (the ownership and management of PSU banks) to pass into the hands of a private sector entity.' 'Ownership of these banks will go from the public sector to private sector.'
As Germany took note of Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday accused the Congress of 'inviting foreign powers' for interference in India's internal matters and the Opposition party hit back, alleging that its rival was attempting to divert attention from the Adani issue.
The scheme offers waiver of interest, penalty, and prosecution for settling tax disputes.
After the government sought Parliament's nod for a second batch of supplementary demand for grants that will cause a hit of Rs 2.99 trillion to the exchequer, doubts suddenly arose about the government's ability to meet the Budget projections of reining in its fiscal deficit at 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), or Rs 15.06 trillion, for the current financial year. Till now, many were of the opinion that the government would succeed in checking the deficit at a much lower figure than what was given in the Budget Estimates (BE). The government had sought Parliament's approval to spend Rs 3.74 trillion extra, but Rs 74,517.01 crore will be matched by equal savings on other heads.
Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday suspended Congress member of Parliament Rajani Ashokrao Patil for the remainder of the current Budget Session for filming House proceedings.
Jaitley, who was the finance minister before a medical procedure led to the charge being temporarily taken away from him, missed presenting the sixth and final Budget of the Narendra Modi government before the general elections. In his absence, the charge of the ministry was given to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal.
The department of investment and public asset management (Dipam) can also seek in-principle approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for strategic divestment of PSUs on a case-to-case basis considering investor appetite and sectoral trends.
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With the government pushing key reform measures like insurance and coal block allocation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the country cannot wait even if one of the Houses of Parliament "waits indefinitely".
Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget in Parliament on Saturday.
A person in the 30% income tax bracket with a Rs 40 lakh home loan at 9% interest rate would, under the Rs 3.5 lakh interest exemption, will save Rs 105,000 in tax in the first year, against Rs 60,000 under the previous interest exemption of Rs 2 lakh.
A bill allowing the Centre to declare an area in a state as communally disturbed on its own and send central forces without the state's request, is likely to be introduced in the ongoing session of Parliament.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday contested the assertion in a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement that the new farm laws were passed in Parliament after a full debate and discussion, terming it as 'a travesty of the truth'.
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