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Journalism of Courage
Former Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram spoke in the Rajya Sabha during discussion on the Goods and Services Tax Bill (GST) and said that the Congress party was never opposed to the idea of GST.
Speaking after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced the bill the Upper House, Chidambaram said that the country is now ready to adopt the idea of GST. Tabling the Constitutional Amendments Bill on GST in RS, Jaitley said that consensus was needed to pass the bill.
Speaking about Congress’ opposition to the bill earlier, Chidambaram said, “There can never be a perfect bill, but we found that there are certain parts of the bill which can be corrected. That’s why we opposed the bill earlier.”
The GST bill was passed in Lok Sabha last year but failed the test in Rajya Sabha where BJP is in a minority. The government is now eyeing to conclude the discussion on the bill and pass it during the ongoing Monsoon Session which will end on August 12.
“It has taken us 11 years to arrive at this point but the journey has been a learning experience for everyone,” Chidambaram said in the House.
The ruling NDA tried to persuade party leaders of opposition parties and approached them ahead of Monsoon Session. The congress party was demanding some changes to be made in GST bill and government decided to make nine changes. Now, if the bill is passed by Rajya Sabha, it will have to be sent back to Lok Sabha because of the changes made in the earlier bill that was passed by the Lower House in 2015.
