Modi to meet Sonia Gandhi to discuss tax reform

The government is unlikely to accept a demand by the Congress to change the composition and state quota in the GST council. Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu also attended the meet. “It was because of Bihar and for this besides people of Bihar, we are equally grateful to the Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janata Dal President, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Soniaji (Sonia Gandhi)”, the Congress leader said.

“There are many issues like the GST Bill among other things that are waiting to be resolved and we hope that all these topics will be discussed today in the meeting so that we can proceed ahead together”, Naidu said.

Sharma, who is also the Deputy Leader of Congress in Rajya Sabha, said the demands of the party were well considered and based on merit and the Congress believes that the GST has to be a driver of Indian economy. The Prime Minister may step in if and when the talks head towards a resolution.

“I have personally discussed with nearly every leader of the Congress party, more particularly in Parliament and I am emphasising the word every leader of the Congress party”, Jaitley told Times Now news channel.

“Part of the reason to get rid of the exemption on the corporate tax side is that we want to reduce litigation – so that we don’t have to do the adversarial rent-seeking tax exercise”, he explained.

Stressing that an “element of give-and-take” was vital, government sources indicated the provision for 1 per cent additional tax might be dropped.

But the talks which are happening with the Congress President and Manmohan Singh ji is due to public pressure.

Speaking in Parliament just before the tea meeting, PM Modi had struck a conciliatory note and said: “Consensus is more important than majority rule”. The Congress has repeatedly accused the government of failing to bring the opposition on board on GST, billed as the biggest tax reform since independence.