Stormy Monsoon Session begins July 21: Parliament to focus on Operation Sindoor, new Tax Bill; check agenda, bills, and more
LIST OF BILLS LIKELY TO BE TAKEN UP DURING MONSOON SESSION, 2025
I – LEGISLATIVE BUSINESS
The Bills of Lading Bill, 2024
The Carriage of Goods by Sea Bill, 2024
The Coastal Shipping Bill, 2024
The Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Bill, 2024
The Merchant Shipping Bill, 2024
The Indian Ports Bill, 2025
The Income-tax Bill, 2025
The Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2025- To replace an Ordinance
The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025
The Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill, 2025
The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2025
The Geoheritage Sites and Geo-relics (Preservation and Maintenance) Bill, 2025
The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2025
The National Sports Governance Bill, 2025
The National Anti-Doping Amendment Bill, 2025
II – FINANCIAL BUSINESS Discussion and voting on Demands for Grants (Manipur) for the year 2025-26 and introduction, consideration and passing/return of the related Appropriation Bill. III – OTHER BUSINESS
Resolution seeking approval of extension of President's Rule imposed through Proclamation issued by the President on the 13th of February, 2025 under article 356(1) of the Constitution of India in relation to the State of Manipur.
Income Tax Bill, other economic agendas
A report of the parliamentary committee set up to scrutinise the new Income Tax Bill, 2025, which would replace the six-decade old Income Tax Act, is scheduled to be tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The 31-member Select Committee, chaired by BJP leader Baijayant Panda, was appointed by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to scrutinise The new Income Tax Bill, 2025, which was introduced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 13 in the Lok Sabha.The Committee has made 285 suggestions and at its meeting on July 16 adopted the report on new I-T Bill, 2025, which will now be tabled in the House for further action.The simplified Income Tax Bill, which is half the size of the 1961 Income Tax Act, seeks to achieve tax certainty by minimising the scope of litigation and fresh interpretation. Provisions relating to exemptions and TDS/TCS have been made crispier in the Bill by putting them in a tabular format, while the chapter for not-for-profit organisations has been made comprehensive with use of plain language. As a result of this, the word count has come down by 34,547.In a taxpayer-friendly move, the Bill replaces the term 'previous year' as mentioned in the Income Tax Act, 1961 with 'tax year'. Also, the concept of assessment year has been done away with.Currently, for income earned in the previous year (say 2023-24), tax is paid in assessment year (say 2024-25). This previous year and assessment year (AY) concept has been removed and only tax year under the simplified bill has been brought in.
Defence Minister on 'Operation Sindoor'
The session is likely to see a detailed statement on Operation Sindoor by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who held two key meetings on Friday evening with his ministerial colleagues and another with top military brass. Several leaders, including those from the NDA, also want a discussion to highlight the achievements of the government's foreign outreach through various Parliamentary delegations on Operation Sindoor.The government may also field External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to convey its view in Parliament, sources said.
Big uproar by Opposition
The INDIA bloc Saturday evening brainstormed on issues of 'national concern' in a virtual meeting, that saw the participation of 24 parties and included Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, K C Venugopal, Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPI-ML), N K Premachandran (RSP), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Ramgopal Yadav (SP), Omar Abdullah (NC), Hemant Soren (JMM) and Tiruchi Siva (DMK). Rahul is learnt to have pushed for a united fight in Parliament. Aam Aadmi Party which had decided to disengage itself from the opposition grouping, did not attend the meeting.Another contentious issue in the session would be the 'attack on migrants across the country'. TMC's Banerjee, CPI (ML)'s Bhattacharya, and other netas highlighted that migrants from Bengal and other regions were being attacked. They linked it to the voters' review. The discussion on migrants and voters rolls in the meeting suggests opposition may be unrelenting on the SIR.BJP is sure to return fire by saying that the scrutiny of voters was consistent with the Constitution which lays down that only Indian citizens have the right to vote, and by accusing the oppoosition of trying to shield infiltrators from Bangladesh as part of their 'votebank politics'.
Amid the differences between the govt and the opposition, a rare bipartisanship will see the Lok Sabha bring a motion to impeach Justice Yashwant Varma for alleged corruption. But even here, a fresh faultline is the pendency of the impeachment notice submitted by the opposition against Justice Shekhar Yadav of Allahahad HC for 'hate speech'. While the opposition is pushing for Yadav's sacking, the govt is reluctant to entertain it.
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