Parliament passes Finance Bill; Budgetary exercise for 2017-18 completed

Completing the budgetary exercise for 2017-18, Parliament on Thursday passesd the Finance Bill.

New Delhi: Completing the budgetary exercise for 2017-18, Parliament on Thursday passed the  Finance Bill after the Lok Sabha rejected five amendments moved to it by the Upper House with regard to curbing more powers to taxmen and a cap on donation by companies to political parties.

Winding up the debate on amendments passed by the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that he cannot accept the amendments suggested by the Rajya Sabha to the Finance Bill.

Replying to a short debate on the amendments in the Lok Sabha, the Minister said: "I can`t accept five amendments suggested by Rajya Sabha to the Finance bill."

The government had yesterday faced a major embarrassment in the Rajya Sabha as five amendments moved by the Congress and the CPI(M) to the Finance Bill were adopted and approved by the House.

The amendments proposed to delete the provisions relating to the powers given to taxmen like power to requisition books of account, power to survey and more powers to more officers.

The Rajya Sabha approved that there should be a cap of 7.5 percent of net profit of the last three financial years for donation to political parties. It also approved provision to disclose the name of political parties to which contribution has been made by a company.

With PTI Inputs