PM opens doors for talks with Congress

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

￭ Winter session of Parliament begins today

Rahul lists 3 conditions for GST Bill

GST may come up for debate after Dec. 7

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Nov. 25 :

Uncertainty hinges on the passage of the GST Bill during the Winter session despite the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's willingness to talk to the Opposition parties and Opposition throwing a broad hint not to disrupt the Parliament this time.

It is clear that a resurgent Congress is playing a hard ball on the GST Bill and the ruling NDA unwilling to dilute its crucial clauses.The PM rather deputed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkiah Naidu to talk to the Opposition leaders on the GST bill as he is keen that the Bill is passed this session. 

But a clue of hardening of attitude was given by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in Bengaluru today who said, "We have differences on three clauses of the GST Bill with the Government." Though he did not elaborate these three clauses, he hit out at the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi saying that the democracy is all about the discussion. "But our present PM has not done it (Called the Congress) even once."

The Congress wants that the GST regime should clearly spell out the percentage of taxation be fixed (18% at present. The Congress also wants abolition of provision of additional tax of one per cent that will be assigned to the states and clearly spell out dispute resolution mechanism. Rahul Gandhi told his party leaders in Parliament that the party can't accept a GST regime which doesn't have a Cap. No unlimited taxation can be allowed."

But one thing is clearly emerging that the ruling NDA and the Opposition will hold discussions on GST and other issues during this session. In all probability, the GST bill come up for discussion after December 7. The PM is leaving for Paris on November 29 and will return on December 2 while Arun Jaitley will be busy with the marriage functions of his daughter during December 5-7. During this intervening period the differences may be thrashed out, sources say. Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram tweeted today that the government is going for a confrontation with the Opposition on the GST Bill quoting Jaitley"s speech yesterday at Assochem. But it seems clear that Congress would insist on a discussion and vote in the Rajya Sabha rather than disrupting the House.