As the Finance Bill was taken up for consideration in the Lok Sabha, Opposition parties protested against the introduction of the amendments.

Saugata Roy of the Trinamool Congress said when the government introduced the Finance Bill in February, it had 150 clauses and seven schedules but now the government has added another 33 clauses and two schedules. “This is unprecedented and we have already protested,” he said.

Questioning the electoral bonds to bring transparency in poll funding, Congress member Deepender Singh Hooda said the amendments to the Representation of People’s Act was not incidental, as they were not related to tax. He suggested the government should have brought a separate Bill for the purpose.

Communist Party of India (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said several Bills had been smuggled into the Finance Bill; the move was a subversion of the Constitution, to bypass the Rajya Sabha as the Finance Bill was a money bill.

The Opposition’s objections were overruled by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who ruled that the “incidental provisions” involved in the amendments constituted a money Bill and therefore could be considered as part of the Bill.

However defending the amendments, Jaitley said if a substantial portion of a Bill dealt with imposition or abolition of taxes, then, even if it had incidental provisions, it could still be introduced as a money Bill. “No tax can be imposed without reference to courts or tribunals. These are incidental provisions,” he said.

In his Budget speech in February, Jaitley had said, “The predominance of cash in the economy makes it possible for people to evade taxes. When too many people evade taxes, the burden of their share falls on those who are honest and compliant.”