Arun Jaitley says government will push for Insurance Reform

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday reiterated that government is “extremely determined” to push insurance reforms despite opposition obstruction. Insurance Bill seeks Rajya Sabha nod to increase FDI cap from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.

“The government is extremely determined to go ahead with this (insurance sector) reform and will not allow a parliamentary disturbance to obstruct or delay a reform of this kind,” Arun Jaitley said at a FICCI function in New Delhi.

Without naming Arun Jaitley criticised Trinamool Congress and their disruptive strategy in the parliament, especially in the functioning of Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA does not have numbers.

“Political obstructionism is being used to ensure it does not come on the agenda of Parliament,”Mr. Jaitley said. He also regretted that due to the obstruction the government has not able to table many important bills including Coal bill.

“It is a bill which has been unanimously passed by the Lok Sabha. All doubts have been cleared. It was not allowed to come on the agenda of Upper House for discussion,” he said.

The finance minister, however, said that his government is determined to pass important bills.

“There are enough safeguards, and constitutional system can deal with and effectively defeat this policy of political obstructions.”

Government on Friday introduced the much anticipated GST bill in Lok Sabha, which plans to create a single tax for goods and services across the country from April 2016.

(With addition input from PTI)

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