With four GST legislations being passed, centre's budget session ends on a successful note

NEW DELHI: The budget session of Parliament that concluded on Wednesday was successful for the government, which managed to get four legislations related to the Goods and Services Tax Bill passed while setting a new precedent of presenting the Union Budget on February 1 and getting it passed by March 31, before the financial year ends.

While the Narendra Modi government had a smooth sailing in this session -even more so after March 11, when the BJP won handsomely in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and formed governments in Goa and Manipur -it also managed to make the right noises on the issue of giving constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Castes (NCBC).

Not only did the government prepone the presentation of the Budget, it also did away with a separate railway budget by making it a part of the main budget.

Central Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017, Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill, Central Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to states) Bill, Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill, Mental Health Bill, 2016 and Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill, 2016 were some of the important legislations passed by Parliament.

The National Commission for Backwards Classes (Repeal) Bill, 2017 was passed by the Lok Sabha, but the Rajya Sabha sent it to a select committee of the House.

The panel, headed by BJP MP Bhupendra Yadav, will submit its report in the monsoon session of Parliament. The opposition, which outnumbers the ruling NDA in the Rajya Sabha, slammed the government on a host of issues.

Eight hours have been wasted in the Lok Sabha due to disruptions, but the House had made up for it by working for an additional 28 hours in this Budget session.

The Rajya Sabha lost 13 hours due to disruptions on various issues, but worked for six and a half hours more to make up for the loss.