JOIN USChief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian was applauded by the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday for his good presentation of the Goods and Services Tax Bill.
Opposition leaders, led by former finance minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram, quoted Subramanian in their speeches to caution the Modi government against deviating from the CEA’s line.
Subramanian, who is in the race for the RBI governor’s post, was only recently subject to attacks by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy for holding a US green card and taking anti-India position over intellectual property rights.
Subramanian, who became CEA in the Modi government, was joined by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in several rounds of talks with Congress leaders, including Chidambaram, and other parties to build a consensus on the GST Constitution Amendment Bill.
Opening the debate on the Bill, Chidambaram thanked the government for dropping the “retrograde provision” of 1 % additional tax.
He noted that even the CEA’s report on the GST Bill was against levying additional 1 % tax from manufacturing states. Another mention of Subramanian in Chidambaram’s speech was with regard to “capping the tax rate”. He said the Congress wanted the tax rate to be capped at 18 % and incorporated in the Constitution so that only Parliament and not the executive could revise the rate.