The Goods and Services Tax bill is stuck amidst the ongoing war between the government and the Congress. In words of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi “The Congress party will support the GST bill openly in the Rajya Sabha if the Government agrees to its conditions.” As per Rahul Gandhi, it will take only 15 minutes for Congress to stand in full support along with the BJP who is a minority in Rajya Sabha.
The Government wants to roll out the Bill from April 1, 2016, and for the same it is building a consensus as an attempt to pass the GST bill at the earliest in the upcoming budget session of Parliament expected to begin from the last week of February. The bill to introduce GST was originally tabled by the Congress-led UPA government.
Rahul Gandhi while interacting with the management students at Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) stated, “We don’t want a GST where there is no cap on taxes instead a considerable cap on the tax being paid by the consumer and an additional one percent levy on the same for all the producing states.” He further added that ” Functioning of GST requires huge infrastructure, the work has not even begun for that. Govt should begin that work.”
On further probing as to what is blocking GST bill to pass, Rahul Gandhi blamed the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, current Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi stating them one of the major reasons. In its official statement, he told, “It was Congress which brought in the GST legislation. The BJP then stopped GST in Parliament for seven years. Jaitley then did not allow it to pass. Narendra Modi, as CM of Gujarat, did not allow GST to pass.”
