When should the President give assent to the Finance Bill?
In the last few weeks we have received a number of calls from worried assessees and professional consultants on the effective date of the hiked rate of Service Tax and new services. And there was a strong rumour that Parliament had passed the Finance bill and we were asked to inform whether the President has given his assent. Many others thought that the new services and rat are effective from 1st April. In the beginning, we thought the queries were stray and from a few innocent assessees, but as the number increased, we realized that this was a national doubt. Today we are carrying an article on the effective dates of the budgetary exercises by a young Chartered Accountant.
Thankfully this year, the budgetary changes for Service Tax are not effective immediately after enactment; they come into force only on a date to be notified by the government after enactment of the Bill.
But when is the bill going to be enacted? Is there any time limit? When the Bill is passed by the LokSabha and sent to the RajyaSabha, it has to be passed within a maximum period of fourteen days and then it goes to the President. Is there any time limit for the President? Sadly, No.
As per article, 111 of the Constitution, which is extracted below, there is no time limit for the President to assent the Bill; even for returning a Bill other than a Money Bill, the time limit is as soon as possible. Now you know where the babu got to make laws that do not fix any definite time for his adjudication. At least the President is required to act “as soon as possible’, but the adjudicating authorities in tax department canwhere it is possible to do so, adjudicate within the time prescribed.
111.Assent to Bills.—When a Bill has been passed by the Houses of Parliament, it shall be presented to the President, and the President shall declare either that he assents to the Bill, or that he withholds assent therefrom:
Provided that the President may, as soon as possible after the presentation to him of a Bill for assent, return the Bill if it is not a Money Bill to the Houses with a message requesting that they will reconsider the Bill or any specified provisions thereof and, in particular, will consider the desirability of introducing any such amendments as he may recommend in his message, and when a Bill is so returned, the Houses shall reconsider the Bill accordingly, and if the Bill is passed again by the Houses with or without amendment and presented to the President for assent, the President shall not withhold assent therefrom.
In the Constituent Assembly
There was a very interesting debate in the Constituent Assembly on 20th May 1949 on this issue.
Mr. H V Kamath said in the house,
++ In human nature, if you will permit me to say so, unless there is a compelling sense of duty of service, there is always a tendency to procrastinate.
++ This tendency to inertia, this inclination to procrastinate has to be rooted out, by infusing the ideal of duty or service.
++ We cannot be sure that every President of the Union of India will always be guided by this ideal, by this compelling ideal of duty and service.
++ Of course we hope and pray that it may be so, but there is no guarantee.
++ Therefore, it is very necessary, to my mind, that the Constitution should provide specifically a time limit for a contingency of this nature.
Difference between immediate and urgent:
Mr Kamath continued,
++ As a minister, Dr. Ambedkar, I am sure, must be aware that in the Secretariat various files are knocking about with tags of labels attached to them, some being "Immediate", some urgent," some "early" and so on. Files marked "Immediate" reach the honourable Minister in a day, those marked "urgent" reach him in a couple of days and those marked "early" have been known to sleep in the Secretariat for two of three months. Further latterly, Government has devised new forms such as "consideration" and 'active consideration".
++ I therefore wish to obviate any difficulty arising from substitution of the words "as soon as possible". Nobody knows what they mean, what "as soon as" means. We know in the Legislative Assembly Ministers are in the habit of answering questions by saying "as soon as possible". When we ask, " When will this thing be lone?" the answer is "As soon as possibly or very soon." But six months later, the same question is put, and the answer is again, "As soon as possible," or "very soon". This phrase is vague, purposeless and meaningless and it should not find a place in the Constitution, especially in an article of this nature where we specify that the President must do a thing within a certain period of time.
++ Why do we do it? We do it in order to see that Bills are not left hanging fire in the President's Secretariat--and I know his secretariat is not going to be different in any way from other secretariats.
As we now know, his suggestion was not accepted.