Parliament session: Arun Jaitley says UPA government failed to specify the purpose and scope of Aadhaar

Continuous sloganeering and protests by leaders from Andhra Pradesh in the Lok Sabha forced the House to adjourn briefly on Thursday morning. The Lok Sabha resumed the session around 11.45 am and continued its Question Hour, which ended shortly after noon.

The Rajya Sabha, meanwhile, was adjourned till noon minutes after the session began. While Telugu Desam Party leaders raised slogans in the Upper House against the government’s Budget provisions for Andhra Pradesh, the Congress protested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments about its leader Renuka Chowdhury on Wednesday, The Indian Express reported.

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, speaking after the Rajya Sabha reconvened, said Jaitley announced in 2016 that the government would provide a health cover of Rs 1 lakh for economically weak families, but the scheme was “quietly buried” after it did not meet Cabinet approval. “Two years later, the same minister came up with a new scheme with a Rs 5 lakh cover for 10 crore families,” Chidambaram said. “Where will the



money come from to fund this?”

Jaitley in the Upper House

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asserted that nobody said during the United Progressive Alliance’s rule that India was the fastest growing economy in the world. “It has only happened now. Data speaks for itself,” he added.

Opposing the capping of the Goods and Services tax rate at 18%, Jaitley said that an equal tax rate could not be levied on items which were luxuries and those which were essentials. “Structural reforms may pose momentary difficulty initially, but in the long run they will prove to be beneficial,” he added.

The finance minister said that demonetisation and the GST had an impact on India’s Gross Domestic Product, but it fell by just 0.4% from 7.1% to 6.7%.

On the Rafale deal, Jaitley said the government could not disclose the detailed cost outlay of the agreement as it would reveal what specific weapons were part of the defence system of the aircraft.