The government on Monday listed the landmark Goods and Services Tax Bill to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
The government on Monday listed the landmark Goods and Services Tax Bill to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The BJP issued a whip to members asking them to be present in the House for the next three days to ensure passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill.
The government, meanwhile, held a fresh round of talks with the Congress and other parties, including the Left and the Samajwadi Party, to build a consensus on the key tax reform legislation that will usher in a single tax regime in the country.
“The GST Bill is listed for consideration and passage on Wednesday in the Rajya Sabha and we seek the support of all parties. The mood is in favour of its passage,” said parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar.
Sources said finance minister Arun Jaitley held further consultations with senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma and chalked out details of the contentious bill aimed at bringing about a consensus. Mr Jaitley also met CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and some other leaders. Later, along with Mr Kumar, he met Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
Another round of talks to clarify the language of key parts of the bill is likely to be held with the Congress Tuesday. Though the government earlier wanted to list the bill on Tuesday, many Congress MPs will be away as they will be attending party president Sonia Gandhi’s roadshow in Varanasi.
The government, it is learnt, is keen to ensure four key amendments in the bill, that includes scrapping of the one per cent additional tax provision and grant of more powers to states to give them full compensation up to five years. The key Congress demand to rephrase the language on the setting up of a dispute resolution mechanism in the GST Council has also been agreed.
At an AICC briefing, Congress leader P.L. Punia said the GST was very important for the economy, industry and business as well as for the consumer. “It was the Congress Party that brought the idea of GST. We have raised certain issues and the negotiations are still on. We are prepared to accept every reasonable solution that does not adversely affect business, industry and consumer interests. There has to be one more round of talks. The party feels the bill should be passed,” he said.
The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last year but the government could not muster the required numbers in the Rajya Sabha at that time due to strong opposition by the Congress and some other parties.
Another amendment that the government is likely to bring is to spell out the principle for setting the rate of tax to be fixed to ensure it doesn’t hurt the revenue of the states nor the interests of the consumer.
Aimed at turning all 29 states in India into a single market, the new indirect tax regime was earlier planned to be introduced from April 1 this year, but the deadline was missed as the law to roll it out remained in limbo in the Opposition-dominated Rajya Sabha.
