Rajya Sabha to debate Bill on GST tomorrow

Amendments show the govt has yielded to some Congress demands

A hectic day of meetings with Opposition leaders on Monday gave government strategists the confidence to table the Constitution amendment Bill on Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The amendments to the Bill, which was to be circulated among Rajya Sabha members, showed that the government has yielded to some of the Congress’ demands to achieve a consensus.

Opposition leaders said that while they would support the Constitution amendment Bill, the real battle will be fought at the time of the GST Bill, which is likely to be discussed in the winter session.

After the Cabinet seal on the changes to the Constitution amendment Bill on GST last month, the draft legislation seeks to scrap up to one per cent additional tax on the inter-state supply of goods. It also seeks to provide full compensation to states for the first five years of the GST rollout, in case they earn less revenue than the existing tax regime. The states will also get a greater say in the dispute resolution mechanism. A senior government source said the Congress demand for rephrasing of the language for setting up of dispute resolution mechanism in the GST Council has also been agreed to.

The earlier demand of the Congress to cap the rates in the Constitution amendment Bill was not met. Now, the Congress wants the rates to be “ring fenced” in the GST Bills, which would come up only after the Constitution amendment Bill is passed by Parliament and ratified by at least 15 of 29 states.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said: “The GST Bill is listed for consideration and passage on Wednesday in the Rajya Sabha and we seek the support of all political parties. The mood is in favour of its passage.” Kumar said the government has consulted all parties. “We hope as well as expect that the Bill will be passed by the Rajya Sabha unanimously,” he said.

Kumar said a Constitution amendment Bill, under Article 368 (2) of the Constitution, needs to be passed by at least twothirds majority of a minimum half of the strength of the House, adding that an extra day has been factored in to enable all political parties to ask their members, who might be travelling, to reach Delhi by Wednesday.

All political parties that have representation in the Rajya Sabha were in the process of issuing whips to their members to attend Wednesday’s proceedings. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has issued a whip that asks its members to ensure their attendance for the next three days. Five and a half hours have been allocated for the discussion and passage of the Bill.

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma and Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief Sitaram Yechury. He also met Samajwadi Party leaders.

Congress leader Sharma conveyed to the government that his party would prefer that the Bill is not taken up on Tuesday, since several of its Rajya Sabha members, including Azad, would be busy with Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s road show in Varanasi.

Senior Congress leaders, like former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Sharma, are likely to brief Congress members on the party’s demands that the government has agreed to. At its media briefing, Congress’ PL Punia said GST was mooted by his party and is important for the economy, industry, business and the consumer.

“We have raised certain issues and negotiations are still on. We are prepared to accept every reasonable solution which does not adversely affect business, industry and consumer. There has to be one more round of talks,” Punia said.

The Lok Sabha had passed the GST Constitution amendment Bill on May 6, 2015. It had then been referred to a select committee, which had submitted its report this July. The government then tried to build consensus with all political parties. It held a meeting of the state finance ministers last month. Some of the amendments suggested by the parliamentary committee, regional parties, the Congress and state finance ministers have been incorporated in the amended Bill to be tabled for passage in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.