The Congress on Friday indicated that the crucial GST Bill may sail through during the second leg of Budget Session since the Centre is inclined to meet the demands of the party on the issue. The party also alleged that the ruling party is trying to bypass the Rajya Sabha as in the case of some of the legislative business including Aadhar Bill which was introduced as Money Bill.
"This is an assault on the Rajya Sabha. The Rajya Sabha and the lok Sabha are two equal wheels of the same chariot of Indian democracy and it is astonishing that this Government's Finance Minister, Defence Minister, Health Minister, Communication Minister, Petroleum Minister, Power Minister, Environment Minister, Human Resource Development Minister, Commerce Minister are all Members of the Rajya Sabha," said former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh.
On the question on GST Bill, Ramesh said there were three demands of the Congress. "Out of the three demands that we have made, the Finance Minister's blogs and Facebook notings seem to be inclined to supporting two of these three demands. On accepting two of these three demands — the creation of a Dispute Settlement Mechanism which is independent of the GST Council, the constitutional cap, as I see it, he (Jaitley) is not against the idea of the cap but he is opposed to the idea of putting that cap in the Constitution. That is what I can figure from his public statement. So, let us see," said Ramesh. He said that if the Government is serious about the GST, about the
Constitutional Amendment, it will engage the Congress seriously.