Jaitley hopeful of passing GST bill in next session

NEW DELHI: After hitting the Congress wall in two successive Parliament sessions, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday exuded confidence that the landmark GST bill would be passed in the next session as numbers in the Rajya Sabha will tilt in favour of the new indirect tax regime.

“The next session is going to be extremely important. And half way through the next session, the numbers of the Upper House are also going to change. So I am reasonably optimistic, as far as the next session is concerned, that we may be able to push it through,” Jaitley said. Parliament’s budget session will start in the last week of February.

Addressing the officer trainees of the Indian Revenue Service, he said there is virtually a consensus for GST among political parties and “everybody supports it”.

“...Parliamentary obstructionism has prevented it from happening in the last two sessions,” he said.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill that will subsume all indirect taxes like excise duty, service tax and sales tax into one uniform rate, is stuck in the Rajya Sabha where main opposition Congress wants three changes.

Congress stalled the passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill in the last two sessions, derailing the government’s plan to roll out GST from April 1, 2016.

Jaitley said the concept of GST was first conceived in 2006 and the Constitution Amendment Bill was first introduced in 2011, but the UPA government could not build a consensus with the states

“The GST is already delayed Ideally, it should have come much earlier,” he said, adding that the tax regime will render India into one big market, make tax evasion difficult, ensure seamless move ment of goods and services and push up GDP.

Jaitley said after coming to power, the NDA government built broad consensus among the states and following that, brought the Constitution Amendment Bill again in Parliament.

“I continue to discuss with the states and with all political groups, so that we can ensure its safe passage in the Upper House,” he said.

NITIN KANOTRA/HT Sikh devotees show their skills during a religious procession by community members to celebrate the birth anniversary of 10th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh, in Jammu on Saturday.