Parliamentary logjam holding up GST, other key bills: CII

 Continued logjam in Parliament is delaying passage of key Bills like GST, which are crucial for economic growth, industry body CII said today.

"Industry is keen to undertake the next cycle of investments as soon as the economic reforms process kicks in. With several crucial economic bills getting delayed, investment deceleration is plaguing the economy.

"Core sector growth has slowed down, the industrial production index remains volatile and bank credit is locked up. Parliament holds the key to unlocking the investment pipeline and CII urges taking up the necessary bills," CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said.

Commenting on the stalemate in Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said yesterday that there were many issues like floods and agricultural issues which Rajya Sabha members wanted to raise. Bills like GST also needed to be discussed and passed, he said.

"Industry expects that our leaders would seize the window of opportunity for the country for expediting growth, which is so important in this stage of India's development," former CII president Ajay Shriram said.

CII President Sumit Mazumder said key Bills including GST, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, etc. are pending in Parliament.

"We would sincerely wish that attention can be devoted to these and other important economic issues. The pace of reform that we have seen in the last two sessions of Parliament should have continued unabated in this session too.

"This is imperative for the economy. It is critical to be able to be on a steady and certain pace of reforms, including the ones, which need legislative intervention," he said.

Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej said that GST Bill must be passed in this Parliamentary session if the vital tax reform is to be introduced by April 1, 2016.

"The GST is one of the most critical reforms for India as it will create a smooth and efficient market, lower costs and raise tax revenues.

We believe it would add as much as 2 percentage points to the rate of growth, which will help generate millions of new jobs. But for this, the Parliament must transact business," Godrej said.