More than 200 voice votes were held before a bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. After a complicated process, the bill brought to improve the functioning of the institutions of chartered accountants, cost accountants and company secretaries was finally approved on Tuesday. The amendments were rejected by some opposition members in the House but were nevertheless approved after seeing a majority.
The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha only last week. The special thing was that the discussion on the bill and the reply of the Finance Minister took a total of 2 hours and 20 minutes. It took 18 per cent of the time of the House to pass this bill. John Brittas of CPI(M) had given 163 notices for amendment. While Binay Vishwam of the CPI had also proposed some amendments. All proposals were to be approved by the House. Because of this, voting was done 200 times by voice vote in the Rajya Sabha to pass the bill.
Responding to the discussion on the bill, Sitharaman said that there is no such provision in it, which is infringing on the autonomy of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Cost and Work Accountants and Company Secretaries. He also said that the government has no intention and no such proposal to interfere with or undermine the functioning of these three institutions.
The Finance Minister said that the institutions related to Chartered Accountants, Cost and Work Accountants and Company Secretaries work separately. He said that there is no proposal to bring a legislation regarding the operation of these three institutions. They will continue to operate under different laws. He said that good work has been done in this field in many countries of the world including US, UK, Canada and South Africa. We want to bring transparency and accountability on the lines of these good experiences, he said.