Govt asks Congress to review remarks on GST

Two days ahead of the winter session of Parliament, the government on Tuesday urged the Congress to revisit some of its suggestions on the most important economic reforms measure – the Goods and Services Tax Bill as they were “not in the best interest” of the GST regime.

In the all-party meeting on the winter session, the government is expected to nudge the Congress and other Opposition parties for the passage of the GST bill, which may miss the deadline of April 1, 2016, if Parliament does not clear it in the upcoming session.
“We are willing to discuss with the Opposition but the Congress needs to revisit some suggestions as they are not in best interest of the regime, we are reaching out to them with these,” Jaitley said on the conditions put forward by the Opposition party for their support to GST.

He was speaking at an Assocham event on Tuesday evening. Jaitley comments came soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed the hope at an economic convention in Singapore that his government will roll out GST next year.

 Jaitley has already been working with his team in the finance ministry to tweak the GST Bill to bring the Opposition especially the Congress on board and get their support in the Rajya Sabha. According to officials in the finance ministry, the government may drop the 1 per cent additional tax on the Congress’s demand.

The government has also signalled that it is willing to meet the Congress halfway by arriving at a politically acceptable GST rate. But the Congress also wants that the GST rate should be the part of constitutional amendment bill on which there could be differences between the government and the Opposition.