Indian parliament passes Aadhaar Bill to distribute subsidy

LAHORE: Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Indian Parliament, Friday passed the Aadhaar Bill that seeks to give legal sanction to the unique identification number programme or “Aadhaar” as a single window to distribute subsidy and other direct benefit transfers.

The passage of this bill has ignited a fresh debate as the Congress-led opposition has accused the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government of circumventing rules to introduce a bill as a money bill in the lower house.

Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the bill's focus was entirely on the usage of government money for targeted subsidy. He added that while 97 per cent Indian adults were now covered by “Aadhaar” and promised that the government would not allow its misuse, 67 per cent of minors had it as well. 

Arun Jaitley maintained that five to seven hundred thousand people were being added every day to the list of “Aadhaar Card” users. Talking to the NDTV, Congress legislator Ghulam Nabi Azad viewed: “The Rajya Sabha (Senate) will be severely impaired if the government decides to adopt the money bill route for the Aadhaar Bill. It will be the first step towards making the Rajya Sabha redundant in the days to come.” 

Another Indian media outlet IBN Live was quoted as saying: “The targeted subsidy through Aadhaar cards of LPG consumers had resulted in over Rs 150 billion of savings at the Centre. Four states which had started PDS delivery by a similar exercise on a pilot basis had saved more than Rs 23 billion.”

Earlier on March 4, 2016, a renowned newspaper “Indian Express” had opined: “This is not the first instance of the government taking recourse to the money bill route to avoid introducing a bill in the Rajya Sabha, where it lacks majority. An upset opposition has decided to oppose the move. A money bill is the one which deals with provisions for imposition and abolition of taxes, and can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha. Once passed in the House of People, the bill has to be passed without any amendments by the Rajya Sabha within 14 days from the date of receipt, failing which it is considered approved. Under the rules, the Speaker of Lok Sabha has the power to allow a bill to be introduced as a money bill.”