After the 2023 Budget Session of Parliament adjourned sine die, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, expressed concern over the low productivity of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. According to Meghwal, the Lok Sabha had a productivity rate of 33%, while the Rajya Sabha’s productivity rate was even lower at 24%. The minister said a total of six bills were passed by the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
The just concluded Parliament Budget Session had the worst productivity in the last five years, and the second worst in the last 10 years.
Parliament Productivity
| Budget Session | Lok Sabha Productivity % | Rajya Sabha Productivity % |
| 2023 | 33 | 24 |
| 2022 | 123 | 90 |
| 2021 | 107 | 90 |
| 2020 | 86 | 74 |
| 2019 | 135 | 100 |
| 2018 | 21 | 27 |
| 2017 | 108 | 86 |
| 2016 | 121 | 91 |
| 2015 | 122 | 101 |
| 2014 | 106 | 110 |
Data Source: PRS Legislative Research
The low productivity of the two Houses was highlighted by the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman in their concluding remarks before adjourning the 2023 budget session sine die.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla On Productivity
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla announced the conclusion of Lok Sabha’s 2023 Budget Session, disclosing that the General Budget was discussed for 14.45 hours with the participation of 145 MPs. The Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address was deliberated upon for 13 hours and 44 minutes with the participation of 143 MPs.
Birla further said eight government bills were introduced and six were passed, while 29 oral questions were answered, 133 matters of public importance were raised, and 436 matters under rule 377 were discussed.
“A total of 62 reports from different department-related parliamentary standing committees were tabled before the House,” Birla said in his concluding remarks. He also expressed concern over the disruptive and disorderly conduct of protesting MPs.
Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Upper House Functioning
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, in his valedictory remarks, said the 259th session of Rajya Sabha was closing “albeit on a note of concern”. He said it was worrisome and alarming that the “paramountcy of debate, dialogue, deliberation and discussion in Parliament has yielded to disruption and disturbance”.
The productivity of the first part of the Budget Session was 56.3 per cent. For the second part, it plummeted to an abysmal 6.4 per cent, Dhankhar said.
“Cumulatively, the House productivity was only 24.4 per cent,” he said, adding: “Disruptions claimed 103 hours and 30 minutes of its time.”
Breakup Of Business During 2023 Budget Session
Parliamentary parlance defines ‘legislative business’ as the process of introducing, discussing, withdrawing, or negating bills and resolutions in the Parliament. The amount of time devoted to legislative business during the 2023 Budget Session of Parliament is disproportionately low.
Lok Sabha spent 44.3% of its functioning time on non-legislative business, while only 1.1% of the time was given to legislative business, as per PRS Legislative Research, a think tank that monitors the functioning of Parliament. In the Rajya Sabha, the numbers are worse as 56.6% of productivity pointed towards the non-legislative function while zero per cent was dedicated to legislative functioning.
This is the lowest productivity of the upper house during the budget session of parliament in a decade and the second worst for Lok Sabha in 10 years.
| Budget Session | Lok Sabha Legislation Productivity % | Rajya Sabha Legislation Productivity % |
| 2023 | 1.1% | 0% |
| 2022 | 16.4% | 13.7% |
| 2021 | 22% | 24.2% |
| 2020 | 13.5% | 17.1% |
| 2019 | 46.4% | 51.2% |
| 2018 | 0.9% | 5.6% |
| 2017 | 33.7% | 19.3% |
| 2016 | 17.3% | 15.1% |
| 2015 | 29.6% | 21.9% |
| 2014 | 13.3% | 15.7% |
Data Source: PRS Legislative Research
Time Spent In Different Activities
The Lok Sabha functioned for 45.9 hours in the recent Budget Session while the Upper House had 32.3 hours of functioning. Out of the functioning hours, the MPs spent 4.3 hours on Questions in the Lok Sabha while the Rajya Sabha members spent 1.8 hours. Only 0.5 hours were spent by the members of Lok Sabha on legislation, and the Rajya Sabha did not see any functioning hours for legislation.
As much as 17.3 hours in the Lok Sabha were spent on the financial activities of Parliament. The corresponding figure in Rajya Sabha was just 2.6 hours. Non-legislation took 20.4 hours of the Lok Sabha out of the 45.9 hours of the 2023 Budget Session, while the Upper House spent 18.3 hours out of the 32.3 hours of its functioning.
