<p>The Congress party on Thursday rebuffed suggestions of a breakthrough on a landmark tax reform, hours after the government said it had accepted the demands set by the main opposition party to back the measure.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The proposed goods and services tax (GST), India's biggest revenue shake-up since independence in 1947, seeks to replace a slew of federal and state levies, transforming the nation of 1.2 billion people into a customs union.<br /><br />Supporters say the new sales tax will add up to two percentage points to the South Asian nation's economic growth.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />"The government is using optics of meetings and is not serious about GST," senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal told reporters.<br /><br />His comments came after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said the government had agreed to accept the opposition party's demands.<br /><br />Naidu also said the government was willing to bring forward the next parliament session to pass the proposed goods and services tax (GST) bill if Congress backed the measure.<br /><br />The minister met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Thursday to convey the government's decision. Gandhi did not assure him of her party's support, however.<br /><br />"Sonia said they (Congress) will discuss among themselves and take a final decision," Naidu said. But Sibal said the party was still waiting for written proposals from the government.<br /><br />Congress wants the government to cap the GST rate at less than 20 percent, scrap a proposed state levy and create an independent mechanism to resolve disputes on revenue sharing between states.<br /><br />The political slugfest between the two sides has ensured that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's self-imposed deadline of April 1 for the GST's launch will be missed.<br /><br />While Jaitley has yet to set a new date for the rollout, aides say passage of the constitutional amendment bill in February's budget session of parliament would allow them to implement it by October.<br /><br />Yet even that deadline, which would fall in the middle of the tax year, appears optimistic, say economists.<br /><br />"There is still a substantive legislative process that has to be completed," said Aditi Nayar, an economist at ICRA, the Indian arm of rating agency Moody's.</p>
<p>The Congress party on Thursday rebuffed suggestions of a breakthrough on a landmark tax reform, hours after the government said it had accepted the demands set by the main opposition party to back the measure.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The proposed goods and services tax (GST), India's biggest revenue shake-up since independence in 1947, seeks to replace a slew of federal and state levies, transforming the nation of 1.2 billion people into a customs union.<br /><br />Supporters say the new sales tax will add up to two percentage points to the South Asian nation's economic growth.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />"The government is using optics of meetings and is not serious about GST," senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal told reporters.<br /><br />His comments came after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said the government had agreed to accept the opposition party's demands.<br /><br />Naidu also said the government was willing to bring forward the next parliament session to pass the proposed goods and services tax (GST) bill if Congress backed the measure.<br /><br />The minister met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Thursday to convey the government's decision. Gandhi did not assure him of her party's support, however.<br /><br />"Sonia said they (Congress) will discuss among themselves and take a final decision," Naidu said. But Sibal said the party was still waiting for written proposals from the government.<br /><br />Congress wants the government to cap the GST rate at less than 20 percent, scrap a proposed state levy and create an independent mechanism to resolve disputes on revenue sharing between states.<br /><br />The political slugfest between the two sides has ensured that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's self-imposed deadline of April 1 for the GST's launch will be missed.<br /><br />While Jaitley has yet to set a new date for the rollout, aides say passage of the constitutional amendment bill in February's budget session of parliament would allow them to implement it by October.<br /><br />Yet even that deadline, which would fall in the middle of the tax year, appears optimistic, say economists.<br /><br />"There is still a substantive legislative process that has to be completed," said Aditi Nayar, an economist at ICRA, the Indian arm of rating agency Moody's.</p>