While India Was Meditating the Yogi, Jaitley Changed The Rules
NEW DELHI: "And while the entire Media and the people of the Country are busy playing "Spot the Monkey" with Yogi Adityanath, the Finance Minister has slyly used a backdoor to push in a Finance Bill which will be altering 40 different laws.
Here are some of the highlights of this Bill which will give readers something to chew on.
1. An Income Tax officer can enter any Property and start searching it without giving any reason as to why he is doing it. (He does not have to explain why to you, or even to the tax tribunal.)
So the next time your doorbell rings it might not be your Society Watchman telling you "Aaj paani nahi ayega" it can be your friendly neighborhood Income Tax officer who wants to go through your clothes cupboard and you have no choice but to stand and stare.
2. Anyone can donate to Political Parties anonymously using "Electoral Bonds" even foreign donations can be made anonymously. Also the cap on how much amount a Corporate can donate to any party has been removed.
So now a Company like PepsiCo can "donate" an exorbitant amount to a Political Party and then sit and wait for the payback when that party wins.
3. Adhaar Cards will be mandatory for filing Income Tax returns. Infact they now need to be linked with your PAN Cards.
So while the Supreme Court is still busy deciding whether Andhar Cards should be made mandatory or not, they already are. (SC has now said that Aadhar should not be linked to welfare schemes but the government is well within its rights to link it to IT returns or any such banking issues).
4. Eight Tribunals which were there for resolution of various disputes have been merged into one. And the Center can simply appoint whoever they want to the Tribunal by a simple gazetted notification. No Judiciary suggestions or Special Steering Committee required.
When you actually want to approach a Tribunal for resolving your dispute.....well....good luck to you.
And all this has been bulldozed through the Lok Sabha as a Money Bill.
Which means it does not need to go through a vote in the Rajya Sabha.
By this one bill Jaitley has managed to increase the opacity of Corporate funding in Politics , made your Personal Information public, allowed Corporates to legitimately lobby for laws which help them and ensured that you will have no place to complain about it.
Now you can all go back to eulogizing Yogi Adityanath as your Rights and Freedoms are systematically destroyed.