Monsoon Session 2018: Key Bills to be taken up in the Parliament

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The Monsoon Session of Parliament is set to begin on July 18 and will run for 18 days. Following a couple of Parliament sessions ending in total washouts, the NDA government is hoping to clear pending bills and ordinances and introduce some new ones.

There are 68 Bills pending in Parliament. Of these, 25 Bills are listed for consideration and passage, and three for withdrawal during the session. As many as 18 new Bills are listed for introduction, consideration, and passage.

The Monsoon Session will see the government push six ordinances to be replaced with bills. Ordinances were necessitated because these bills were passed in the Lok Sabha during the Budget session but were not taken up in the Rajya Sabha.

The Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance is one of them. The ordinance aims to crack down on economic offenders who leave the country to avoid due process. Offences involving amounts of Rs 100 crore or more fall under the purview of this law. Economic offences are those that are defined under the Indian Penal Code, the Prevention of Corruption Act, the SEBI Act, the Customs Act, the Companies Act, Limited Liability Partnership Act, and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018

The ordinance is expected to recognise homebuyers as financial creditors. This would enable homebuyers (either as an individual or group) to initiate insolvency proceedings against errant builders. Homebuyers shall have the right to be represented in the committee of creditors (CoC), which takes the key decision regarding revival of the company or its liquidation.

Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2017

This was introduced in Lok Sabha on January 2, 2018 and seeks to amend the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. The bill seeks to provide relief to payees of dishonoured cheques and also discourage frivolous and unnecessary litigation so as to save time and money.

Code of Wages Bill, 2017

The Bill aims to combine over 44 labour laws into four broad codes in wages, industrial relations, social security, and occupational safety, health and working conditions. The codification of labour laws aims to ease of compliance without compromising wage security and social security to workers. The Bill will ensure minimum wages to all and timely payment to employees irrespective of the sector without any wage ceiling.

Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016

The Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in Lok Sabha on August 10, 2016. The Bill amends the Factories Act, 1948 and regulates the safety, health and welfare of factory workers. It also amends provisions related to overtime hours of work.

Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017

FRDI Bill, 2017 seeks to protect customers of financial service providers in times of financial distress. It also aims to inculcate discipline among financial service providers in the event of financial crises, by limiting the use of public money to bail out distressed entities. The Bill also empowers a resolution body to bail-in the company. While a bail-out is the use of public funds to inject capital into an ailing company, a bail-in involves the use of depositors' funds to achieve those ends. This has caused a lot of concern among depositors who were worried they may lose their hard-earned money deposited with banks.

The FRDI Bill was introduced in August 2017 and was referred to a joint committee of the Parliament which is consulting all the stakeholders on the provisions of the FRDI Bill. The committee has been asked to submit its report to Parliament in this session.

State Banks (Repeal and Amendment) Bill, 2017

In August 2017, the Lok Sabha passed the State Banks (Repeal and Amendment) Bill of 2017 to amend the State Bank of India (SBI) Act of 1955 to remove references related to subsidiary banks. The Bill was passed in Lok Sabha in August 2017, it needs Rajya Sabha's nod now.

With the Budget session turning out to be the least productive in 18 years due to rising political differences, it has to be seen whether the government would be able to get the approval of both the Houses for many crucial pending Bills. According to PRS Legislative Research estimates, the cost of each hour of Lok Sabha proceeding was as high as Rs 2 crore in FY18, while the same for the Rajya Sabha was Rs 1.33 crore. Almost 245 hours were lost in the session because of disruptions.

Source: PRS Legislative Research