Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “chai pe charcha” with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday ignited hopes of an early breakthrough on the Goods and Services Tax (Bill).
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu were also part of the 45-minute deliberations.
While Sonia and Manmohan conveyed the Congress’ three key demands, scrapping one per cent additional tax on inter-State sale of goods, a cap of 18 per cent on GST rate through a constitutional amendment and an independent dispute resolution mechanism for GST, the PM is reported to have discussed his Government’s stand on the matter and sought cooperation from the Congress in the interest of reviving the economy
Sources in the Congress said though the party was keen to ensure the passage of the GST Bill, it would continue to convince the Government to take steps to meet its demands.
The Congress president is expected to hold discussions with senior Congress leaders before reverting to the Government with her response.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Jaitley said that the Government will establish “fresh contact” with the Congress once the party completes its internal discussion on the three issues of “their concerns” on which they made their position clear.
This is the first direct outreach by Modi to the principal Opposition ever since he came to power last year, in a bid to ensure smooth functioning of Parliament in the Winter Session. Modi had invited Singh and Gandhi to tea at his residence where the discussions covered issues pending before Parliament, particularly the large number of Bills that have not been passed over the past two sessions.
“The history and the background of the legislation and the Government’s response to these issues in detail were also explained to them,” Jaitley said.
“The Congress party leaders will be discussing this within their own party and there would be after sometime a fresh contact between the Government and the Congress leaders on this subject,” Jaitley said.
Talking about the meeting over the GST Bill, senior Congress leader and former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said it was a constructive engagement.
“Such an interaction and dialogue was missing for long and the Government has been kind enough to reach out to us since we are the real authors of GST. Once deliberations on both sides are complete further things will shape up in the interest of the economic growth of the country,” said Sharma.
“Hope the Government has registered our concern and the merit of what we are saying. It is not a question of going back or forward. The three demands of Congress were neither political nor partisan,” said Sharma.
Sharma, who is also the Deputy leader of Congress in Rajya Sabha, said the demands of the party were well considered and based on merit and the Congress believes that the GST has to be a driver of Indian economy. “It has to be effective... We want it to create a genuine common market, bring down the transaction burden on the industry,” he added.
“The Congress believes when you have committed such a major constitutional amendment which deals with direct taxation and also the progress tax reform, it must not be rushed through and it should benefit our people and industry,” Sharma said.