Though the monsoon session saw the government managing to get Parliament approval for 20 Bills, including the one replacing an ordinance issued earlier to amend the insolvency law to recognise home-buyers as financial creditors and another to tighten the noose around absconding economic offenders, it could not push a number of important economic Bills such as the Code on Wages, 2017.
The Code on Wages will replace four laws and empower the Centre to set a national minimum wage, which has to be followed by the state governments. It also provides that the minimum wages must be revised by the central or state governments at an interval of five years and the overtime rate would be at least twice the normal rate of wages.
Analysts are of the view that the Bill could be challenged in court on the locus-standi of the Centre to take away the authority of states to lay down minimum wage norms. Labour is in the concurrent list of the Constitution, which enables both Centre and states to make laws.
Approved by the Lok Sabha on April 10, 2017 but pending in the Rajya Sabha, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016 seeks to amend the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 to address issues related to the third party insurance, regulation of taxi aggregators, and road safety. The government has removed the proposed cap on third-party motor insurance claims in case of death or injury — though the current law has no such cap, a cap of `10 lakh for death and `5 lakh for grievous injuries was proposed in the draft Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill.
Under what is now proposed, a victim/kin can straightaway approach insurance firms for cash compensation of `5 lakh in case of death and `2.5 lakh in case of injuries. If not satisfied, they can subsequently approach the motor accident claims tribunal for a higher amount.
The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA) Bill, 2018 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 18 to allow pre-determined tariff structures for airports. It aims at enhancing the threshold for qualifying as major airports from 1.5 to 3.5 million passengers per annum.
Other important pending Bills include the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018, the Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the Chit Funds (Amendment) Bill, 2018, the Consumer Protection Bill, 2018 and the National Medical Commission Bill, 2017.
Approval to the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 is being touted as a key achievement by the government. Public servants, especially bankers, will heave a sigh of relief as the amendment has drastically reduced the scope of their unfair investigation or arrest for genuine error of judgement in policymaking and will thus enable them to take bold commercial decisions. Besides amending GST laws to give effect to some business-friendly measures, Parliament also gave nod to the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2017 that allows courts to direct partial payment of fine or compensation to the payee during trial or on filing an appeal in cheque bounce cases.