New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Finance Bill but rejected all five amendments approved by the Rajya Sabha a day before. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, however, invited suggestions from political parties on issues such as making election funding more transparent. This was one of the amendments moved in the Upper House.
A cap on donations to political parties by private companies and curbing more powers given to taxmen were among the five amendments moved and approved by the Opposition parties, chiefly the Congress, in the Upper House.
The amendments moved in the Upper House do not hold water as changes suggested for the Finance Bill by it are non-binding.
Mr Jaitley said that the government could not accept the amendments, but invited suggestions from political parties, including the Congress and the BJD, to make election funding cleaner and more transparent.
The Lok Sabha later rejected the Rajya Sabha amendments by a voice vote, thus passing the Finance Bill 2017 and completing the budgetary exercise for 2017-18.
The minister said that most donations that come to political parties now were from unclean money, and there was complete non-transparency. He said it was not possible for the government to accept the amendment as it would limit the number of donors to political parties.
