NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary Committee has asked the Government to come out with a legislation for carrying out the required changes in the insurance sector without "any further loss of time'' as promised to the Lok Sabha.

In its 13th report tabled in the current session of Parliament, the Committee on Government Assurances has rejected the Government plea to drop its assurance and said the recommendations of the Law Commission for the merger of the Insurance Act, 1938, and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Act, 1999, deletion of redundant provisions in these Acts and setting up of a grievance redressal mechanism were of "immense relevance for the insurance sector'' and that the required amendments should be expedited. The committee was headed by Harin Pathak of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The committee took note of the Government response during May last year in reply to a question by D. Vital Rao (Congress) whether there was a proposal to have a comprehensive legislation on the insurance sector and whether the Law Commission and the IRDA had provided some inputs in this regard.

The Finance Ministry requested that the assurance be dropped since a committee of experts set up by the IRDA has submitted its report to the Authority which would formulate its views to enact law for the amendments in the Acts concerned and that the whole process would take a long time. Later having received the requisite views of the IRDA, the Ministry took the plea that it would take sufficient time for fulfilling the assurance and as such it might be dropped.

In another case concerning the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the committee expressed unhappiness that as many as 4,384 requests were pending with patent offices which include 2,280 pending applications relating to pharmaceuticals alone.

The committee also noted that even after a lapse of one year the assurance to accelerate the process of grant of patent, comprehensive modernisation of patent offices that includes review of existing procedure and development of new user-friendly procedures could not be implemented.

In its report, the Committee desired that the the modernisation process of patent offices be expedited, pending applications be disposed of at the earliest and the implementation of the assurance should also be expedited.

The committee also desired to be apprised of the time generally taken in other countries in granting of patent.

PTI reports:

Delay in tax refund

The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament in its report said delays in income-tax refund payments had shot up to 27.36 months in 2003-04 from just eight months in 1996-97. As a result, the projected reduction in the interest burden on refunds worth over Rs. 350 crore was never achieved.

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