Hope fly high that the crucial GST Constitutional Amendment Bill could be taken up this week, but the Government has not listed the Bill in Rajya Sabha for Monday or Tuesday indicating that some contentious issues between the Centre and the Opposition Congress Party remain to be addressed.
Deputy leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma told The Pioneer that barring an unexpected hitch, it is a done deal. “The Bill will in all likelihood clear the Upper House,” Sharma said. A senior Cabinet Minister confirmed that the talks between the Government and the Congress Party were progressing in the right direction.
The Bill, approved by the lok Sabha in May 2015, got stuck in the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling BJP does not have a majority.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Friday, in a statement on Government business in Rajya Sabha, had said the GST Bill will be taken up for consideration and passage in the week beginning from August 1. A Government source said that Bill will be listed for consideration in the Upper House anytime this week before Thursday.
The Centre claimed to end the stalemate after no less than seven rounds of discussions. The Congress gave up its demand for including in the Constitution a cap of 18 per cent on the GST rate and the Government agreed to address its concerns for an independent mechanism for dispute resolution.
Ahead of Rajya Sabha considering the biggest indirect tax reform measure since Independence, the Government has met a key Opposition demand of scrapping 1 per cent additional tax on inter-State movement of goods. It has also agreed to compensate States for any revenue losses for five years.
Sharma said that the Congress is no longer insisting on 18 per cent as the GST rate at this stage as the rates will be determined eventually by the proposed GST Council.
The second Congress demand was for an independent dispute resolution mechanism headed by a High Court judge, and not the GST Council proposed by the Centre. Sharma said the Government gave a commitment to strengthen the Bill’s provision on the Council.
In Bengaluru, Home Minister Rajnath Singh expressed confidence over getting the long-pending GST Bill passed in Parliament. “We are getting constitution amended for GST on which discussions have been on since long...Since Congress’ time. I am confident that we will do those amendments and pass the GST,” Singh said.
“Due to lot of structural and procedural changes that we have brought in and due to foreign direct investments, also by integrating certain new things to our economic system we can proudly say that India is today the fastest growing economy in the world,” he said on the sidelines of a function.