Monsoon session of Parl from July 21, 8 new bills on agenda

Eight new bills, and likely a resolution to extend President’s Rule in Manipur, are on the agenda for the monsoon session of Parliament that will begin July 21, sources told NDTV.
There will be a total of 21 sittings till August 21, with a break from August 12 to 18, in a Parliament session that is likely to, once again, deliver stormy confrontations between the ruling BJP and the Opposition, including the Congress-led INDIA bloc. Among the likely flashpoints will be the Election Commission’s ‘special intensive revision’ ahead of the Bihar Assembly election later this year. The opposition- Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal- have been protesting the decision to revise the voter list months before election. EC has said the exercise will ensure a free, fair, and transparent poll.
In addition the government will also look to pass the new Income Tax Bill; this had been tabled in the last session and then referred to a joint parliamentary committee for further scrutiny.
The new bill, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament in February, will cut through the jargon in the 1961 Income Tax Act and make it easier to understand for the common person.
If it passed in this session, the law comes into effect from April 1, 2026.
Among the proposed changes and amendments is the concept of a ‘tax year’, which will replace the simultaneous use of ‘financial year’, or FY, and ‘accounting year’, or AY. In other words, under current income tax laws, tax for income earned in 2023/24, for example, is paid in 2024/25.
The proposed change will see the introduction of a ‘tax year’, so tax on income earned in a year will be paid that year. It has also omitted redundant sections, like those about ‘fringe benefit tax’.
Overall, it tries to replace the 1961 Act, which critics had become voluminous due to amendments made over the past 60 years.
There will likely also be a face-off over the controversy surrounding former Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma, who is likely to be impeached this session after bundles of cash were recovered while firefighters put out a blaze at his allotted bungalow in Delhi in March. The judge had denied any wrongdoing on his part, and attributed the seized cash to a ‘conspiracy’.
Parliament is also expected to hold a discussion on the Pahalgam terror attack and the subsequent military operation by India – Operation Sindoor.
Meanwhile, other bills to be tabled are the National Sports Governance Bill and the National Anti-Doping Amendment Bill, Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, Manipur Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, Indian Institute of Management (Amendment) Bill and Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill.