With the Opposition parties such as the Congress, Trinamool and BJD announcing their support for the much awaited goods and services tax (GST) Bill, it is set to cross the first hurdle in Lok Sabha when it will be put to vote on Wednesday.
The BJP has issued whip for its MPs to be present during the Constitutional amendment for the GST Bill today in the Lok Sabha.
As the Lok Sabha took up discussion on the Bill on Tuesday, finance minister Arun Jaitley ‘requested’ the Opposition to help clear the bill and not insist on sending it to the Standing Committee, otherwise the planned roll out of GST from April 1, 2016 will be delayed by another fiscal.
“This bill has gone through the Standing Committee for two and a half years. It has been before dozens and dozens of empowered committees. Only then has a consensus happened. I beseech you to rise above party considerations,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. “If all our CMs agree why are we delaying it? And that means your states will suffer,” he added.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan rejected the opposition demands to refer the key reform measure to a parliamentary Standing Committee. In the over half-and-hour procedural wrangle, the opposition members insisted that the 122nd Constitutional Amendment Bill be referred to the Standing Committee on Finance as it was a new bill as opposed to the one brought by the UPA government.
Members of the Congress, the Biju Janata Dal, the AIADMK and the CPM slammed the government for “bypassing” Parliamentary Standing Committees by refusing to refer several bills to it. Jaitley argued that if the GST Bill was sent back to the panel, it would deny the benefits to the states by another financial year as the deadline of April 1, 2016 will be “missed”.
Jaitley said the Standing Committee has already deliberated upon the measure for two-and-a-half years and barring a few points, there was a “broad consensus” in the empowered committee of state Finance Ministers on the provisions of the Bill. Besides, he said, a sort of consensus has emerged between the Centre and the states through the empowered committee of state Finance Ministers.
Seeking to bring the Opposition on board, he said all Congress-ruled states have supported the bill and Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal and BJD-ruled Odisha would be the biggest beneficiaries from day one. He appealed to the opposition parties to “rise above partisan” considerations as “no purpose will be served” by delaying the passage of the crucial bill as it would be the states which would suffer financially.
Jaitley said after the GST, the government is likely to propose three more bills on the powers of the Centre and the states. GST Bill is a Constitution amendment bill which has to be ratified by at least 50 per cent of the state legislatures.
The Budget session of the Lok Sabha ends this Friday while the Rajya Sabha will close on May 18. The bill, however, is unlikely to be passed by the Rajya Sabha in this session.
