Opposition fires salvo at govt on GST bills

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday took up the four bills related to the GST, with the Opposition questioning the government’s preparedness to implement the indirect tax regime and urging for a mechanism to insulate taxpayers from harassment by tax authorities. All the four bills have been cleared by the Lok Sabha. A total of eight hours have been kept for discussion in the Upper House after which the finance minister will reply. Four-hour discussion took place on Wednesday while the remaining time will be utilised on Thursday.

Initiating a debate on the bills, deputy leader of Congress Anand Sharma said, “It is important that as you go for implementation, both the Centre and the state governments should create an institutional mechanism which protects or insulates the taxpayers from harassment.”

Mr Sharma termed the proposed legislation as “imperfect” saying that 40 per cent of the revenue base of the GDP has been kept out of it.

“When you look at the list of exclusions it is worrisome. All petroleum products, diesel, petrol, aviation turbine fuel, gas has been kept out. It is elementary common sense that is the biggest multiplier when it comes to the transaction cost or transportation.

“When you have such a heavy list of  exclusions how are you going to help in achieving the objective particularly when it comes to bringing down the transaction cost and reducing the burden particularly on the industry,” Mr Sharma questioned.

Responding from the treasury benches BJP MP from Rajasthan, Bhupendra Yadav, said GST will help the poor in many ways. He added that ease of doing business and reduction of transaction costs are all taken into consideration. “If one travels from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, there are many barriers in check posts. Once GST is implemented, all these issues won’t be there. GST Council will resolve both State and Centre issues,” Mr Yadav said.

Since all the four bills of GST are money bills the law does not require them to be amended in the Rajya Sabha. Since the GST council consists of all state governments a broad consensus has emerged. All the bills are expected to passed from the Rajya Sabha on Thursday after the reply of the Finance Minister