Govt stubborn on GST: Chidambaram

Days after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley blamed the Congress for holding back reforms and raising fresh issues with GST bill, the main Opposition party on Friday hit back saying it was “stubborn and unbending” attitude of the government which obstructed the passage of GST and many other reform legislations.

Addressing a press conference here, former finance minister P Chidambaram also charged the government with showing “no willingness” to engage with the Opposition on any important issue, whether the conduct of foreign policy, relations with neighbouring countries or the rise of intolerance and communal violence.

Chidambaram said Prime Minister Narendra Modi did invite Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh for talks to break the impasse on GST. The leaders raised three precise objections but the matter was not taken forward from there.

“The prime minister said we will come back to you after reflecting within the government. That’s almost a month now. We have not received the written response of the government or the revised formulation of the government on the three principal objection,” Chidambaram said.