MoF lines up 12 bills for Winter round

NEW DELHI: Over a dozen bills have been lined up by the finance ministry for the winter session of Parliament.

This include the controversial bill to reduce government holding in public sector banks to 33% from the existing 51%, the amendment to the Sarfaesi Act and the bill to set up a regulatory authority for the pension sector.

As per the finmin list sent to the parliamentary affairs ministry, the controversial Banking Companies (Acquisition, Transfer of Undertaking and Repeal) bill is being processed.

The ministry will also table the first batch of supplementary demands for grants in the session.

The Cabinet has already cleared the amendments to the Sarfaesi Act, and the pension regulatory and development authority bill. It is also expected to approve the Government Securities Bill to liberalise the market for government debt papers.

The proposed act will replace the Public Debt Act. It was approved by all the state governments, but lapsed with the dissolution of the last Lok Sabha. Most of the bills on the agenda of finance minister P Chidambaram relate to the banking sector.

These include the Banking Regulations Bill, which seeks to set up multi-state co-operatives under the ambit of the Reserve Bank of India, and the Credit Information Bureau Bill.

Among the other bills are the Customs and Central Excise Laws (Repeal) Bill and its twin, the Customs and Central Excise Tariff (Amendment) Bill, which will replace outdated sections in the indirect tax structure.

The Payment of Settlement Systems Bill is also expected to sail through in the forthcoming parliament session.

The bill is aimed at streamlining the mechanism of clearing houses for cheque settlement.
The government has also drafted a bill to set up an Acturial Institute in the country, to bridge a long-felt gap in the training of insurance sector personnel.