The Narendra Modi government introduced the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The legislation seeks to provide statutory backing to Aadhaar and enable targeted delivery of subsidies and other benefits to the intended beneficiaries.
The Bill was introduced as a money Bill in the Lower House by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The legislative strategy was opposed by the Congress, Left, Trinamool and Biju Janata Dal.
A money Bill can be tabled and passed only in the Lok Sabha. The Rajya Sabha, where the NDA lacks a majority, cannot amend it or refer it to a joint committee of Parliament. The Upper House can only make recommendations and has to return the Bill to the Lok Sabha within 14 days.
“We are ready to cooperate on the Bill but it should not come as a money Bill. They are doing this to avoid the Rajya Sabha,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha.
Kharge also said that he had written to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday, expressing concern that its introduction was not discussed in the Business Advisory Committee meeting.
BJD’s Bhartruhari Mahtab said the Bill was part of the Rajya Sabha. “We don’t know whether it has been withdrawn.”
In his response, Jaitley said this Bill was substantially different from the earlier one. “The substance of the Bill is that whoever gets subsidies, will have to produce Aadhaar. This is in accordance with Article 110,” he said.
Old Bill withdrawn
Later, in the Rajya Sabha, the Finance Minister withdrew the earlier Bill, The National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010.
Already, nearly 98.5 crore Aadhaar cards have been issued, making it the world’s biggest biometric ID programme.
The new Bill has measures pertaining to security, privacy and confidentiality of information in possession or control of the Authority, including information stored in the Central Identities Data Repository.
The Aadhaar scheme has an approved outlay of ₹13,663 crore to meet the estimated expenditure on implementation up to 2016-17.
Of this, about ₹6,844 crore had been spent on payments for enrolments, logistics operations, Aadhaar Sampark Kendras, technology infrastructure, operations etc till December 31, 2015.
In addition, ₹409 crore has been spent on “establishment” expenses.