Top ministers meet, govt hopeful of Congress support on GST

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in a television interview on Wednesday night that these three Congress demands had not been included in its original GST bill.

“The discussion on the “so called intolerance” will provide us a good opportunity to expose them”. The Prime Minister also said that Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, who has held talks with leaders of various parties, may talk to them further on the issue of India’s stand on the resolution on the climate change issue and any one can give suggestions for two more days. He said the government has established the parameters to have the best possible rates for GST. A united opposition is set to corner the government over the issue of intolerance in the Winter Session.

“We would like to support each and every bill on merit”.

“We have nothing to hide”.

“We are ready for debate and discussion”. We will also bring the document “Why the So-called Intellectuals Silent Then & Violent Now: It is nothing but an ideological intolerance”. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu is meeting leaders from all parties.

The globe-trotting prime minister has attempted to cajole investors-both domestic and international-by talking up improved economic growth numbers, but investors and global credit rating agencies are still waiting for him to push through big bang reforms. The legislative agenda for the session includes over 30 bills, which are either pending or slated to be introduced. It also wants a proposed inter-state state levy to be scrapped. “Our top leaders will meet on November 27, and will finalise our course of action on the bill for the session”, Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, told Businessworld on Tuesday (24 November).

Shiromani Akali Dal leaders pitched for an amendment in the SGPC Act and Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured them of looking into it.

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. “We have to think about the traders as well as the consumers”, he said.

The Govt is going as per the constituition of India and would continue to do so.

“Substantial issues have already been discussed”, he said.

Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor said he was hopeful a consensus will now be reached with the government.

The Congress dissent note on the GST Bill, which was submitted in July by Madhusudan Mistry, Mani Shankar Aiyar and Bhalchander Mungekar to the Rajya Sabha had listed eight key points of friction.