Finance bill amendments snoop into people’s lives: United Oppn

NEWDELHI: A united opposition led by Congress on Monday accused the government of promoting crony capitalism, giving unbridled power to taxmen and trying to snoop into people’s lives by a slew of amendments in the Finance bill, 2017.

Opening the debate on the bill in Rajya Sabha, Congress leader Kapil Sibal accused the NDA government of giving unbridled power to tax authorities through the Finance Bill. He said, “The tax authorities can now carry out search or seizure without divulging the “reason to believe” and “political opponents could be targeted and they may not get respite from any appellate body and possibly even from the higher courts…you will create fear in the mind of people.”

The Congress leader also slammed the move to make Aadhaar mandatory for filing tax returns saying it amounts to snooping into people’s lives.

“Aadhaar was meant only for streamlining the public distribution system, but the present government wants to use it for snooping on the personal lives of citi- zens,” he said.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury termed the finance bill as “finance bully” and maintained that mandatory Aadhaar for IT returns violates fundamental right of privacy. He opposed the merger of various tribunals and said bill should be rejected.

Countering the allegations, BJP’s Bhupender Yadav said the Centre has brought bankruptcy and insolvency bill, which other parties ruling for decades could not do. Yadav hailed the government’s plan to spend ₹20,000 crore on irrigation, saying only 46% of land is irrigated in the country.