Month-long Winter Session to begin on Nov 16

NEW DELHI: The Winter Session of Parliament will commence on November 16 and is likely to end on December 16, it was officially announced today.

This will be the 10th Session of 16th Lok Sabha and 241st Session of Rajya Sabha.

"The Tenth Session of Sixteenth Lok Sabha will commence on Wednesday, November 16, 2016. Subject to exigencies of government business the Session is likely to conclude on Friday, December 16, 2016," a statement from the Lok Sabha Secretariat said.

A similar communique was issued by Rajya Sabha Secretary General Shamsher K Sheriff.

The Session dates have been advanced this time since in the past it was normally convened in the third or fourth week of November.

The recent surgical strikes in PoK are expected to grab limelight during the month-long Session. Some parties have alleged that the government is trying to politicise it.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affair (CCPA) that had met here on October 13 and recommended that the Parliament session should commence from November 16 and end on December 16.

An early Session may help the Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) legislations, which will pave way for the Goods and Services Tax (GST), to be approved within November or latest by early December.

The government is also considering advancing the Budget Session by a month and it expected to start in the end of January next year.

Sources in the government said besides legislations relating to GST, around a dozen new bills are likely to be introduced.