Naidu meets Sonia over the GST issue

Hinting at an early budget session, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi seeking cooperation on the GST Bill.

Sources said Naidu told Gandhi that issues raised by the Congress in respect of GST bill were considered by the government and the government’s position was communicated to Congress leaders earlier.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had recently said that the rolling out of the ambitious GST regime is “certainly” doable this year and added that he was in “continuous touch” with the Congress in a bid to persuade them to cooperate.

Janpath residence here, Naidu said: “We discussed about the GST Bill and I reminded Sonia ji to take the stand over the same”.

“The next session is going to be extremely important”. And halfway through the next session, the numbers of the upper house are also going to change.

Parliament’s approval will set in motion steps towards rolling out the GST, but several more hurdles must be passed before it can be adopted – at least half of the states must vote in favour of the proposal before it becomes a law.

The budget session of Parliament is meant to begin in last week of February.

The second round of meeting between the government and the Congress top leadership appeared to indicate that some middle ground is being worked out for the passage of the crucial GST bill.

The Congress party, the original author of the tax reform, has opposed what it calls the “flawed” version now before Parliament, where it has been able to block a key constitutional enabling amendment in the Rajya Sabha.

After passage from the Rajya Sabha, it needs to be ratified by 50 per cent of states. The GST bill has been touted as the biggest tax reform since independence.