1. INTRODUCTION
India's finance bill for the financial year 2016-2017 (the
"Bill") was presented by the Finance
Minister on February 1, 2017 and approved by the Lok Sabha with
certain modifications on March 22, 2017. The Lok Sabha voted the
Bill to be a money bill.
Finance bills are legislative proposals presented in the Lok
Sabha (India's lower house) before the beginning of every
financial year and after the budget announcement for the next
financial year. Finance bills essentially propose all the
amendments to be made to various acts (such as the Income Tax Act
1961) to implement the budget in the coming financial year.
Generally, bills that exclusively contain provisions for the
imposition and abolition of taxes and the appropriation of moneys
out of the Consolidated Fund are certified as money
bills.1 The significance of a money bill
is that it only needs to be put to vote in the Lok Sabha and the
Rajya Sabha (India's upper house) can only suggest
certain
