GST Bill being stalled by Congress, says Arun Jaitley

Arun Jaitley also brushed aside the conditions set by the Congress, calling it an “afterthought”.

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Arun Jaitley also brushed aside the conditions set by the Congress, calling it an “afterthought”.

Stung by a complete washout of the monsoon session of Parliament, top BJP ministers and leaders targeted the Congress Friday and said that the proposed goods and services tax (GST), the biggest tax reform since Independence, was being stalled by it. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also brushed aside the conditions set by the Congress, calling it an “afterthought”.

“I don’t think it is part of prudent politics for any party to put pre-conditions, particularly on any fiscal relations between the Centre and states… all these three pre-conditions are an afterthought,” Jaitley told reporters at a press conference. He was referring to former finance minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram’s statement on Thursday.

Chidambaram had said that if the government addresses three fundamental concerns, including maximum GST rate of 18 per cent, no additional one per cent tax and setting up of dispute resolution mechanism, the Congress could consider supporting the Constitutional amendment Bill for GST in the Rajya Sabha.

Responding to these three conditions, Jaitley said, “Neither Chidambaram’s proposal approved by him in 2013 or when the legislation was introduced in 2014 had such a cap (of 18 per cent). So it is an afterthought. In any case, fiscal relations don’t have a conditionality… (as far as dispute redressal authority is concerned) the standing committee unanimously rejected it and all Congress party members were privy to it… Both these two conditions are contrary to what his own stand as FM was.”

He said that the one per cent additional tax to manufacturing states was a compromise reached between the Centre and states.

The NDA had Thursday decided to target Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi for the paralysis in Parliament and said that the first family of the party has not reconciled to being out of power.

While Jaitley briefed the reporters in the capital, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Chennai that she was “very optimistic” about the passage of the GST while Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said it will be “definitely” passed.

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However, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in Ahmedabad that there were “less possibilities” of the Bill being passed by April 2016, although the government would work out alternative ways to ensure people get its benefits.

Souding a conciliatory note, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu appealed to all parties, mainly the Congress and Left, to help take forward the legislation as any delay would hurt the national interests.