Yechury unhappy with Centre's 'immoral' Finance Bill

New Delhi [India], Mar. 29 (ANI): Expressing unhappiness over the government's 'immoral' Finance Bill which was passed today, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, however, expressed satisfaction that the Centre had been defeated by the Rajya Sabha on four of the amendments. Yechury said that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives political lectures on eliminating political corruption during elections, what they are doing to the laws is exactly opposite. "That is why we moved the amendment, the Rajya Sabha approved it and now the government will have to take it back to Lok Sabha and their misusing the tyranny of democracy that they have. They are likely to pass it, but nevertheless they had to suffer this humiliation in the Rajya Sabha," he told ANI. Yechury further said that as a mark of protest against the government amending 40 acts in the Finance Bill, they moved the amendments which were approved by the Rajya Sabha. "The government has done an unprecedented thing, which I think is immoral, by bringing in a lot of non-tax proposals and changes in finance bill...As mark of protest against it and against the wrong things they were doing, we moved the amendments and today, the Rajya Sabha defeated the government on four of these amendments," he told ANI. Speaking particularly about the amendment in the Companies' Act moved by him, Yechury said removing the ceiling on donation shows their efforts to convert black money into white. "The amendment that I had moved was particularly for the changes they brought in the Companies' Act whereby they removed the ceiling that any company can donate to political parties. Earlier, it used to be 7.5 percent of net profits of the last three years. Now they have removed this ceiling. Companies can donate unlimited which means benaami companies can be floated by politicians and all the kickbacks they get through contact can go to back to the party and therefore, black money can be converted into white," he said. The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Finance Bill after various amendments presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. "As far as benefits are concerned, you can produce Aadhar. If you don't have one, you can produce other ID and simultaneously apply for it," said Arun Jaitley. He further said that the Government will issue electoral bonds. "There are lot of wild information going around over the authority of assessment officers over search and seizure," added Jaitley. "Let me clarify this under section 132, a satisfaction note must be submitted before search and entering premise and that has to be submitted in the court," he added while notifying that the Finance Bill protects the source of information for tax evasion. Earlier, Jaitley moved four Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bills for consideration and passage in the Lok Sabha, which then took them up for discussion. The Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Bill, 2017, along with three other GST Bills were moved for consideration in the lower house. (ANI)