On Friday, the Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman, is scheduled to introduce the Finance Bill 2023 in Parliament. This bill will give effect to the financial proposals of the central government for the financial year 2023-24 to be taken into consideration. It is an important bill that outlines the government’s spending and revenue plans for the upcoming fiscal year.
On Thursday, the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, passed demands for grants that authorized expenditures of approximately Rs 45 lakh crore for the upcoming fiscal year. However, the passage of the proposal was met with protests by opposition members who demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Hindenburg–Adani row, among other issues.
Despite the protests, the proposal was passed by voice vote. The Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla, applied for the Guillotine procedure when the House met at 6 pm following two adjournments earlier. The Finance Minister then moved the Bill to authorise payment and appropriation of certain sums from and out of the Consolidated Fund of India for the services of the financial year 2023-24 for passage in the House amid the din. The bill was passed amid the din and the House was later adjourned for the day.
However, the two Houses of Parliament have been experiencing repeated logjams over the past few days. The BJP has been demanding an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remarks in the United Kingdom, while the opposition has been demanding a JPC probe into the Adani issue.
The ongoing budget session of Parliament, which began on March 13, will continue until April 6. The Finance Minister had presented the Union Budget on February 1, which outlined the government’s spending and revenue plans for the current fiscal year. The Finance Bill 2023 is an important step in giving effect to the proposals outlined in the budget.