GST Bill tops agenda for Winter Session

In what promises to be yet another difficult session of Parliament — scheduled to commence on November 26 — coming as it does soon after the Bihar elections, the government’s top priority remains the controversial Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made this clear in Singapore on Tuesday.

But the government’s success in taking its reforms agenda forward will hinge on how many concessions it is willing to make to the Congress that has drawn several red lines through the present draft Bill. Meanwhile, the Congress leaders continued to maintain that no effort has been made by the government to narrow down differences on the contentious law.

Even the Janata Dal (United) — that heads the victorious Grand Alliance in Bihar — has decided that in the interests of the Opposition unity, it will follow the lead taken by the Congress and the Left Parties: earlier, it had decided to back the GST Bill. “Bihar is not a manufacturing State,” a senior JD(U) MP told The Hindu. “So we are not that affected by the GST. But in the interests of the Opposition unity, we feel in the national interest, the government must heed what the Congress and the Left are saying.” The JD(U) has 12 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, where the government is massively outnumbered.

Not surprisingly then, the GST Bill was one of the key issues that came up for discussion when five senior Ministers met here on Tuesday for a preliminary discussion ahead of formal all-party meetings convened by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Wednesday.

Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Manohar Parrikar who met at Mr. Naidu’s office, informed sources say, specially reviewed the efforts being made to reach out to the Opposition.

With the Opposition having made it clear that it will raise the issue of rising intolerance, the Ministers also discussed how the government could counter it.

Data that may be helpful:

Important points:-

 

• The Goods and Service Tax Bill or GST Bill, officially known as The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Second Amendment) Bill, 2014, proposes a national Value added Tax to be implemented in India from April 2016. "Goods and Services Tax" would be a comprehensive indirect tax on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and services throughout India, to replace taxes levied by the Central and State governments.