Lok Sabha passes Finance Bill, 2007-08

New Delhi, May 3 (UNI) The Lok Sabha today passed the Finance Bill, seeking to give effect to proposals in the Budget for 2007-08, amid walkout by the NDA-led Opposition.

The lower House, however, rejected the motion moved by Deputy leader of the Opposition Vijay Kumar Malhotra seeking to increase the exemption limit from the present Rs one lakh to 1.5 lakh for general tax payers, 1.8 lakh for government employees, Rs 2 lakh for women and Rs 2.5 lakh for senior citizens.

Mr Malhotra said the increase of Rs 10000 in the standard deduction would not benefit the people against the backdrop of the education cess and service tax, rising inflation and price rise.

Referring to what he termed ''contradictory'' statements of Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Iyer regarding the growth rate, Mr Malhotra asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was present during the Finance Minister's reply to the debate on the Finance Bill, to clear the air over the issue.

When Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who was in the Chair, intervened to impress upon Mr Malhotra that this was not the right occasion to raise such a matter, the senior BJP leader said he had moved a Privilege Motion which would reach him very soon.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and various other senior cabinet ministers were present.

Earlier, during the debate on the Bill the Opposition and the Left parties sought to put the government in the dock over price rise and inflation.

UNI