Appropriation Bills approved in Rajya Sabha

The approval to the Bills came after Jaitley sought to allay doubts about the lack of transparency in political funding in the system of electoral bonds suggested by the government.

New Delhi, March 23: The Rajya Sabha on Thursday approved and subsequently returned the Appropriation Bill, 2017 and the Appropriation (No 2) Bill, 2017 to authorise payment and appropriation of certain sums out of the Consolidated fund of India for the services of the financial year 2017-18.

The Bills were moved for consideration and returning by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The approval to the Bills came after Jaitley, replying to clarifications in response to his reply to the discussion on the General Budget, sought to allay doubts about the lack of transparency in political funding in the system of electoral bonds suggested by the government.

"If clean money comes, there will be enough transparency," he said.

Stressing that digitisation of the economy would lead to greater transparency, Jaitley said: "Transactions will be tracked by IT backbone. Tax evasion is going to be become difficult. All income tax returns (ITRs) go into a common criteria when the return is filed online. Some unexplained factor comes in the way of the software which shows a red alert."

IANS