For three days in a row, both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have functioned well past working hours, adopting a motion of thanks to the President's address to the joint session of Parliament, passing the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2017 in both Houses, and initiating the discussion on the Union Budget.

On Thursday, the last day of this leg of the Budget session, the Rajya Sabha will take up the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Bill, 2017 — which legalises demonetisation — already passed in the Lok Sabha. But the upper House has already seen disruptions from Opposition MPs protesting the PM's remarks against Dr. Manmohan Singh in his speech on Wednesday, leading to repeated adjournments.

4.45 p.m. | Rajya Sabha



Tapan KUmar Sen of the CPI(M) speaks next. "They are going ahead with privatisation of all profit making PSUs."

He then speaks about the government's tax collection numbers.

"This House must be told how much black money you have recovered. Almost 100 per cent money that has been demonetised has come into the banking system, as per RBI. You have facilitated the whitening of black money."

Chair stops Mr. Sen midway saying he can continue in the next part of the session.

Special mentions are laid on the table.

House is adjourned till March 9, 2017.

4.30 p.m. | Rajya Sabha



Mr. Roy speaks about ATMs being empty, but PayTM doing well.

4.15 p.m. | Rajya Sabha



Sukhendu Sekhar Roy speaks now and asks why the government hasn't got information back fromSwiss banks. He c alls demonetisation "not a surgical strike on black money, but carpet bombing on millions of people."

4 p.m. | Lok Sabha



Lok Sabha adjourned till March 9, 2017.

3.45 p.m. | Lok Sabha



The Minister claims that tax collection has increased in December 2016.

"Car sales have gone up. Two wheeler sales have declined."

Opposition MPs raise questions. Speaker disallows questions in the middle of the Minister's speech. "I am requesting the Minister not to answer such questions."

3.30 p.m. | Lok Sabha



"The job of a government is to not enter into another problem while finding a solution. We have brought fiscal deficit down. CAD is now 0.3 per cent. Inflation target set by RBI is 4 per cent (+/- 2 per cent). Most observers felt that our decision to bring down fiscal deficit was good," says Mr. Jaitley.

"The quality of your fiscal deficit was poor because you maintained only by cutting expenditure. In the last year, our actual expenditure is more than the budgeted expenditure. A record amount of FDI has been coming into the country. We have taken a series of steps of make doing business easier in India. There is now competition between states."

"Link demonetisation with GST and see," says the Minister. He says that movement of all goods will come into the system under GST. "At any stage, if someone is evading tax, it will be easy to catch them. In the entire world, cash forms a very small part of the GDP. Cash economy encourages a parallel economy. Studies show that cash is the biggest facilitator of all crime."

3.15 p.m. | Lok Sabha



Finance Minister Arun Jaitley replies to the Budget discussion. "We have changed British traditions of presenting the Budget at 5 p.m. and now, we have done away with the presentation on February 28 too."

"Every year as a matter of parliamentary discipline, there should be separate discussion on the railways."

"The period from 2003-08 was a global boom period. 2008 saw a crash. Additionally, our problem was that the UPA government suffered from reasons of domestic policy — you didn't realise that time has come to eliminate discretions in allocation of resources. The result of this was that you were inviting trouble everyday. The remaining part of your term got substantially wasted; you concentrated on redistribution of existing resources without increasing volumes of production. Growth started falling. Inflation reached double digits. CAD went up to 4.5 per cent, a wholly unnacceptable figure."

3.15 p.m. | Rajya Sabha



Prabhat Jha of the BJP begins speaking next.

2.45 p.m. | Rajya Sabha



"This is the biggest scam of 2016. This means that corruption and black money have thrived after demonetisation. The NSSO says 15 crore people in this country are daily wage earners. 25.5 crore workers are daily income earners. 40 crore people were completely devastated by demonetisation for eight weeks. These 40 crore people may forgive you, but they won't forget the experience. Then, you have the SMEs. What did you achieve?"

"Why should you demonetise and then remonetise? What is this about? RBI officials are busy counting the notes physically. You speak abotu digitisation. First teach that to the RBI. Every rupee has come back, except in Bhutan, Nepal and NRIs, whose money can't come now, because you breached your promise to them."

"If Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes are the causes of such major ills, how does Rs. 2,000 note put an end to it. If 10 per cent of bank officials were dishonest earlier, now you've made all bank officials dishonest.

He then gives examples of countries which still uses cash.

"A young lady wants to buy lingerie. Why should there be a record? A young couple wants to take a holiday. Why should that be recorded? I want to give money to my DIL for her expenses. An adult wants to buy adult diapers. Why should there be a record of that? There are serious issues of privacy are involved which are respected in any democracy."

"You can't tell people to go to the village fair, buy potatoes and tomatoes for Rs. 7.50 and use credit cards. Don't even try to defend demonetisation. At least spare us the ignominy of listening to this defence."

He concludes saying that this Budget has been a great disappointment. "There is no overarching vision and goal. It had no strategy. By cutting expenditure, you've shown that your government has no empathy for the poor. Government must lean towards the poor. After all this, what have you achieved? You can't achieve your fiscal goal of 3 per cent. This Budget is a demonstrable failure of economic management."

2.30 p.m. | Rajya Sabha



"Why are you not giving meaningful increases that take note of inflation in your MSP?" asks Mr. Chidambaram.

"I'm saying I need money to educate my child. I need money to start a small business for my son. I need money to conduct the marriage of my daughter. And you are giving me money to conduct my funeral. Is this the way to treat farmers of this country?" he says referring to Fasal Bima Yojana.

"If your Budget had credibility, then the RBI should have cut the policy rate. They don't believe your numbers. The Governor has said they are moving from an accommodative position to a neutral position. He has no faith in the story that you're projecting. All bank chairpersons, who ordinarily sing the RBI's praises, say there is no room to cut the lending rate. How will investment take place then? Capital is flowing out, investment intentions are declining, credit growth to industry is negative — how is your industry going to grow?"

"You should boost aggregate demand. The tried and tested method is to cut indirect taxes. GST is not likely to come into force before October 1. Cutting indirect taxes would have helped the consumer and the producer. Instead of that, you did the exact opposite and the wrong thing. Who did you cut it for? You cut it, at best, for 1.98 crore people who pay taxes in a country of 131 crore people."

"Overnight, you withdrew 86 per cent of currency. Every ATM in Tirumala was closed. Every bank has a branch in Tirumala. A village in Delhi has been declared as the first digital village in Delhi. You go there and people ask, "What digital?" It is very difficult to get away with a lie. The best way to do so is to utter the biggest lie."

"Come with us and we will take you on a tour of ATMs. You have replenished 9 lakh crore notes as against 17 lakh crore notes that went out of circulation. I saw my first Rs. 2,000 note four days later, whereas bundles of notes were found with others. Where did they get these notes from? Did these go directly from the RBI press to them?"

2.15 p.m. | Rajya Sabha



"Allocation as a percentage of the GDP has only come down," says Mr. Chidambaram. He reads out numbers for allocations over the last three years.

"To give a boost to the economy we have to spend more. This is Economics 101."

"Up until October, Foreign Portfolio Investment was positive," he says. "I've tried to put together various pieces of information. The jallikattu was only a symbol under which people converged. The most vocal angst is about jobs. There are simply no jobs being created."

"75 per cent of all small and medium industries are closed. The jobs have been taken away. This is the angst that brought young people to the Marina."

"Everybody has different concerns. Some are concerned about intolerance — ban jeans, ban books, ban authors, ban beef. We have to find jobs for both the uneducated and the educated."

"Tell me one strategy in the Budget which will create jobs. On the contrary, you have destroyed jobs. THis is a powder keg. All it requires a spark. I would like to caution the government."

"The other thing is about farmers. You said you're increasing lending by Rs. 10 lakh crore. Minimum Support Price will give an indication that agriculture is a viable vocation. There is nothing in the Budget speech about MSP."

2 p.m. | Rajya Sabha



House reconvenes. P.J. Kurien is in the Chair.

AIADMK A. Navaneethakrishnan raises the TN issue in the House. Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi says Governor will reach Chennai today.

Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram begins speaking on the Union Budget 2017-18. "We should spend adequate time discussing the Budget."

He says the government is no longer talking about numbers. "The government inherited an economy that in the last two years of UPA grew by 6.1 per cent and 6.9 per cent. This is from the CSO."

"The average for the 10-year period is 7.5 per cent. India is among the fastest growing large economies in the world. But, through 2016-17 you made a series of mistakes, capped by the most terrible mistake in India's economic history — demonetisation."

"You are fumbling, bumbling, scrambling, and inventing a new narrative everyday. When you give a GDP estimate, why are you shying away from giving a GDP number? 2016-17 will see a hit on GDP by 1 per cent."

"In an economy that has admittedly slowed down, your Budget contracts government expenditure. Finance Minister presents a gross number of actuals, a revised estimate for the year and the BE."

"Take defence. In defence capital, you shifted monies from defence research and added it to defence capital. Either you are unable to spend the money, or you don't have money to spend."

1.45 p.m. | Lok Sabha



Narasimham Thota of the TDP speaks next. He appreciates the government's move to remove capital gains tax from lands pooled for building Amaravati.

Virendra Kashyap of the BJP's turn to speak now.

1.15 p.m. | Lok Sabha



Demonetisation has forced 80 per cent of MSMEs to close down, says Kalyan Banerjee. Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai is in the Chair.

Mr. Banerjee reads out NPA figures. "India will muddle through another year of hopes belied."

Bharat Singh of the BJP begins speaking now.

1 p.m. | Lok Sabha



K.C. Venugopal raises the issue of the safety of female students in colleges. He speaks about a girl set on fire in a Kerala college when she came to write an exam.

Dhruvanarayana of the Congress speaks about Karnataka facing severe drought, and the Centre not releasing funds for this.

Kirron Kher says people of Chandigarh, when they go for jobs in Punjab and Haryana are asked for a domicile certificate.

Congress MPs have now come back to the House.

Discussion on the Union Budget 2017-18 begins. Kalyan Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress begins speaking. "The Budget does not reflect any roadmap for the country or the future." The Budget didn't say how much black money has been extinguished, he says.

"Budget has ignored primary education."

12.45 p.m. | Lok Sabha



Suresh Kodikunnil of the Congress asks for a bailey bridge in Kollam.

Jayadev Galla of the TDP raises the issue of the H1B visa executive order.

12.30 p.m. | Lok Sabha



Badruddin Ajmal says that people in Assam, living in a place for over 50 years are being displaced, without being given proper notice.

N.K. Premachandran raises the issue of gratuity not being increased for employees of public sector undertakings.

Ravindra Kumar Ray of the BJP speaks about the Hazaribagh Road railway station. He asks that the name be changed to avoid confusion.

12.15 p.m. | Lok Sabha



He asks for allocation of foodgrains to Kerala. Slogans of "Maafi maango" (ask for forgiveness) take over the House even as matters are raised.

BJP MP Ravindra Kumar Pandey says that for two decades there has been no employment in the coal industry.

Congress MPs walk out of the House.

J. Jayavardhan of the AIADMK speaks about investment in NIIF.

Bhartruhari Mahtab speaks about the Jagannath temple in Puri. "The ASI found some reparable damages in the iconic hall of the temple. However, the repair work is not up to the standard despite the fact that the state has extended every support." He asks for the work to be ensured as up to standards and also be expedited.

BJP MP Raj Kumar Singh speaks about China blocking India's attempt to have Masood Azhar declared as a designated terrorist. "We need to send a message that friendship is not a one-way street, and that it takes two hands to clap."

A. Sampath of the CPI (M) raises the issue of the plight of seafarers. He asks that the the ratification of maritime convention be implemented. "Retired seafarers get only Rs. 200 as pension."

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar says that Mr. Sampath has raised an important issue. "India has huge coastal lines. Seafarers require assistance. I will apprise the respective Minister of the issue."

12 noon | Rajya Sabha



House reconvenes. Chairman Hamid Ansari takes the Chair.

Disruptions abound. House is adjourned till 2 p.m.

12 noon | Lok Sabha



Speaker disallows all notices of adjournment motions. Papers are laid on the table.

Indian Institutes of Management Bill is introduced in the House. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad introduces the The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2017.

Mallikarjun Kharge tries to raise the issue of the PM's speech in Rajya Sabha. Speaker strikes it off the record. Congress MPs begin slogan shouting.

Matters of urgent public importance are taken up now.

Lakhan Lal Sahu of the BJP raises the issue of hiring in All India Radio.

Speaker says the issues of the other House cannot be taken up in the Lok Sabha.

P. Karunakaran of the CPI(M) says that there is a food security issue in Kerala.

11.45 a.m. | Lok Sabha



BJP MP Nanabhau Patole asks whether the government is looking at reducing electricity rates across States.

Mr. Goyal says that electricity is a State subject, and that it is between the State and the regulator to decide the rates. "There are 30 per cent losses in Uttar Pradesh. The burden is on honest consumers and the rates increase. NTPC'S variable cost has been reduced by almost 32 paise due to rationalisation."

Ranjeet Ranjan of the Congress asks a question on accidents on National Highways in Bihar. Mr. Gadkari answers that the government has instituted a highway radio for the Delhi-Jaipur highway, and this will soon be expanded to other highways. "But the highways you mentioned in Bihar, we have land acquisition issues. Two days ago, we had a discussion in Mumbai, and this may have been solved to the extent of 95 per cent."

Jugal Kishore Sharma of the BJP asks a question of four-laning of a national highway in Jammu and Kashmir. Mr Gadkari says that this work will be completed soon.

Bhartruhari Mahtab of the BJD asks a question on what preemptive steps have been taken by the DGCA to avoid fake certificates given by commercial airline pilots. Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju says that the DGCA will take action accordingly.

Mr. Mahtab asks about a case in Dwarka, Delhi. "What is the monitoring mechanism which is activated only on the complaint from the victims? How are such institutes allowed to open and advertise?"

"It is a fact that some institutions are not following processes," says Mr. Raju. "The effort will be to see that such institutions do not exist."

AIADMK MP K.N. Ramachandran asks for regional language magazines in flights. Mr. Raju says he will look into it. Gaurav Gogoi raises the issue of near-misses and asks if the government marks it on the pilot's license. "Indian skies are the safest in the world," says the Minister. "Those who are responsible, strict action is taken against them."

11.30 a.m. | Lok Sabha



House reconvenes. Speaker takes the Chair. Ms. Mahajan asks Opposition Members to wait till noon to speak.

Tariq Anwar of the NCP asks a question on how many villages are being electrified. Minister says there are 5.90 lakh villages. "Previous government had for 10 years misguided people. They would consider covering 10 per cent households as electrification."

"18,452 was the number of villages where electrification was not done at all. We took it upon ourselves to do the job. You can download an application to find out the updates on electrification."

Tamil Nadu MP K. Parasuraman asks a question on irrigation in the Grand Anicut. "We have given statutory permission. Approval for investment is to be sought," answers Minister Nitin Gadkari.

BJP MP Bhairon Prasad Mishra raises the issue of Ken-Betwa linking and irrigation facilities in Bundelkhand.

Devusinh Chauhan of the BJP asks a question on the Gujarat government's long-pending demand that coal linkage be done. "Central government has helped the State save Rs. 460 crore. Previous government did not do that. E-auctioning of coal has brought in transparency and efficiency. Two power companies in Gujarat have made Rs. 10 crore profit."

Mr. Goyal says that rationalisation of coal linkages was done after they came to power. "40.5 million tonne coal rationalised in respect of transportation and distribution. Gujarat consumers will be given domestic coal."

Mr. Chauhan says in a supplementary question that it is necessary to have coal stock in Gujarat as it is the first State to have round-the-clock electrification.

Minister says that one State alone has not signed the document for round-the-clock electrification, but refuses to name the State as elections are upcoming there.

11.15 a.m. | Rajya Sabha



BJP MPs oppose raising of "flimsy issues."

Sharad Yadav rises to speak. Disruptions take over the House.

House is adjourned till 12 noon.

11 a.m. | Lok Sabha



House convenes. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan takes the Chair. Speaker offers condolences to those who lost their lives in the attack on the embassy in Afghanistan. It also observes one minute silence to condole the loss of 100 lives due to avalanches.

Question Hour begins

Congress members protest as MoS Piyush Goyal makes a statement.

"The government is disbursing funds for power to Andhra Pradesh whenever the requirement is raised," says Mr. Goyal.

"You say that all villages will be electrified by 2019. There are so many parts of the Sundarbans which have not been electrified," says an MP from West Bengal.

"Congress government had laid a benchmark wherein 10 per cent of household electrification was considered to have covered the village," says the Minister. "Every home in the country will be electrified by August 2022."

Congress Members disrupt proceedings. House is adjourned till 11.30 a.m.

11 a.m. | Rajya Sabha



House convenes. Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien is in the Chair. Papers are laid on the table. Committee reports are laid.

Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M) says he has given notice.

"The Prime Minister made comments on my party's general secretary who is dead." Arun Jaitley raises a point of order, saying that the President's address and discussion is regulated by the rules. "The government has the right to reply, but space for rejoinders."

"Instead of replying, it was abusive," says Mr. Yechury.

Chair says there are other avenues for this.

Anand Sharma rises after much commotion. He cites rule 238.

Listed business for the day



Rajya Sabha

- Discussion on the Union Budget 2017-18.

- Statutory resolution by T. Subbarami Reddy to disapprove the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Ordinance, 2016.

- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to move that the The Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Bill, 2017 be considered and returned.

Lok Sabha

- Discussion on the Union Budget 2017-18.

- Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar to introduce The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017.

- Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to introduce The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2017.