Rahul makes stand clear on GST Bill

BJP strategists and political analysts say the government’s strategy is to isolate the Congress while quietly persuading other parties to back the GST Bill, a crucial reforms legislation which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured the foreign investors to be a reality in 2016.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has already questioned the Congress demand to include GST rates in the Constitutional Amendment Bill and said it would lead to a flawed architecture for the tax.

“We are open-minded on the issue”, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said on the sidelines of a press briefing.

He also claimed that “in the meeting, there was a clear support for the GST”.

The Bill had been passed in the Lok Sabha during the monsoon session as the government has a majority in the Lower House, but got stuck in the Rajya Sabha where the NDA lacks numerical strength. Congress party on Wednesday said that it was open for discussions on GST bill over which it has “very genuine concerns”.

Senior leaders have been holding meetings to chalk out a strategy to ensure conduct of legislative business in the Parliament session that begins on November 26.

Finance ministry officials say that a panel headed by Arvind Subramanian, India’s chief economic adviser, could favour a revenue-neutral rate of around 18 percent on goods and services that could be broadly acceptable.

Modi, who attended the all-party meeting briefly, said parliament should run constructively to fulfil the people’s expectations. When our leader Mallikarjun Kharge would speak, they used to shut down his mic. That is not the right way for the government to behave. Almost 30 bills, including the contentious Goods and Services Tax Bill and the Real Estate Regulation Bills, are slated to be taken up for discussion in Parliament in the winter session.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari had admitted a motion to discuss rising incidents of religious intolerance in the country. We are discussing with them and they have meaningful suggestions…

The government countered Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, saying that it had reached out to the Opposition.

“Though the Congress Party wants the GST, it should be simplified”, he said, adding that the BJP’s stand is different from his party.