A DAY after the Cabinet cleared changes in the Constitutional Amendment Bill on the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the government Thursday reached out to the Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, Biju Janata Dal, CPI and CPM, all of which lead governments in different states. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also separately met senior Congress leaders twice during the day to apprise them of the changes made by the Cabinet. With just about 10 days remaining for the end of the current session of Parliament, the government is on an overdrive to build a broad-based consensus among states and political parties. A Congress leader described the discussions with the government on Thursday as “intense, very comprehensive”. Jaitley fielded Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian to clarify issues raised by the Congress. “The talks are at a crucial phase. We expect to reach finality next week,” the Congress leader said, without elaborating on the finer details of the discussions. While the Congress is agreeable to the proposal that the GST rate can be specified in the subsequent legislation, sources said the government will have to give an assurance about the rate before the Constitutional Amendment Bill is taken up in the Upper House. It had demanded that the rate be capped at 18 per cent. But other parties may not be on the same page as the Congress. “On the cap of 18 per cent, the general opinion is that there should be flexibility for the state governments. The hands of state governments cannot be tied,” CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said. “We were briefed by the Finance Minister for about five minutes on the status of issues discussed with the Congress. We have said there should be no cap in the Constitutional amendment. Because if it needs to be reviewed at a later date, you will have to bring in another Constitutional amendment,” Yechury said, adding it can find a place in the law but that should be on the basis of a consensus among the state finance ministers. There is still no clarity on the likely date when Jaitley will table amendments to the Bill. The sources said while the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Rajya Sabha did meet Thursday to decide next week’s agenda, there was no decision on the GST Bill. Sources said Jaitley told the leaders there is still no agreement on the rate. Jaitley met Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram and Anand Sharma. Congress leaders said talks with the Government will continue. He also met leaders of the CPM, CPI , Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress and BJD. Put together, these five parties have 48 members in Rajya Sabha. Leaders of these parties said they were merely informed about the government’s negotiations with the Congress. “Importantly, (there has to be a) a flexibility for each state to decide on its priorities. This flexibility, how that will be incorporated, they will have to discuss with the Congress,” Yechury said. He said the BJP and the Congress are “doing their deal” and the “rest of us are immaterial in terms of numbers”. “So we are just being informed. There is no scope of any discussion nor was there any avenue for discussion,” he said. Yechury told the Finance Minister that the government should find a way to ensure that states can continue to raise resources through imposition of a cess or surcharge in the event of a national disaster as with the implementation of the GST, the states lose their right to raise revenues through sales tax. The parties asked Jaitley to share with them the resolution adopted a meeting of state finance ministers. Besides Yechury, the others present were TMC’s Derek O’Brien, SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav, CPI’s D Raja and BJD’s Dilip Tirkey.
