New Delhi: With the opposition parties, including Congress, Trinamool and BJD announcing their support for the long-awaited goods and services tax (GST) Bill, is set to cross the first hurdle in the Lok Sabha when he started vote on Wednesday.
The BJP has issued whip by its members to be present during the constitutional amendment to the GST Bill in the Lok Sabha today.
As the Lok Sabha took the discussion of the bill on Tuesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ‘asked’ opposition to help clear the bill and not insist on sending it to the Standing Committee, otherwise the planned roll GST from April 1, 2016 will be delayed by another prosecutor.
“This bill has been passed by the Standing Committee two and a half years. It has been before dozens of committees enabled. Only then has come to a consensus. I beg you to rise above considerations of party,” he said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. “If all our CM according why are you delaying? And that means that their states will suffer,” he added.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan rejected opposition demands to refer the key reform measure to a Parliamentary Standing Committee. In the procedural dispute over half-and-hour, members of the opposition insisted that the draft constitutional amendment 122a is sent to the Standing Committee on Finance as it was a new bill as opposed to by the UPA government.
Members of Congress, the Biju Janata Dal, the AIADMK and the CPM slammed the government for “pass” standing parliamentary committees refusing to consult multiple accounts to it. Jaitley argued that if the GST bill was sent back to the panel, would deny benefits to states for another financial year the deadline of April 1, 2016 will be “lost”.
Jaitley said that the Standing Committee had already discussed the extent of two and a half years, and except for some points, there was a “broad consensus” in the authorized State Finance Ministers on the provisions of the bill committee. In addition, he said, a kind of consensus has emerged between the Centre and the states through the authorized committee of the State Finance Ministers.
Opposition trying to bring on board, he said that all the states ruled by Congress have supported the bill and the Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal and Odisha BJD be governed by the biggest beneficiaries from the first day. He called on the opposition parties to “rise above partisan considerations” as “no purpose will be served” by the delay in the approval of the fundamental law, because States would suffer financially.
Jaitley said after the GST, the government is likely to propose three bills more about the powers of the center and the states. GST Bill is a proposed constitutional amendment has to be ratified by at least 50 percent of the state legislatures.
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.
