A Bill which seeks to decriminalise minor financial offences was referred to a Joint Committee of both the Houses of Parliament.
Commerce minister Piyush Goyal said a committee of 31 members will consider the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2022 even as the Lok Sabha witnessed disruptions a day before it is likely to be adjourned.
Opposition MPs demanded a discussion on China during the introduction of the Bill, and the House was adjourned twice due to that. Besides the decriminalisation of minor offences, the Bill envisages the rationalisation of monetary penalties, depending on the gravity of the offence, bolstering trust-based governance. Introducing the Bill, Goyal said that the Bill will amend certain enactments for decriminalising and rationalising minor offences to further enhance trust-based governance for ease of doing business.
Goyal said that the joint committee will have 21 Lok Sabha MPs, and 10 Rajya Sabha members, and will submit its report by the last day of the first week of the second part of the Budget Session in 2023.
Lok Sabha members of the Committee include PP Chaudhary, Sanjay Jaiswal, Uday Pratap Singh, Sanjay Seth, Queen Ojha, Khagen Murmu, Poonamben Hematbhai Maadam, Poonam Pramod Mahajan, Aparajita Sarangi, Arvind Dharmapuri, Rajendra Agrawal, Rattan Lal Kataria, Gaurav Gogoi, Dean Kuriakose, A Raja, Sougata Ray, Venkata Satyavathi Beesetti, Gajanan Chandrakant Kirtikar, Rajiv Ranjan Alias Lalan Singh, Pinaki Misra and Girish Chandra. The names of the Rajya Sabha members will be announced later.