Will the deadlock on GST finally end?

Jaitley says NDA willing to reach out to Congress but Anand Sharma wants Narendra Modi to first shed his confrontationist stance

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has signalled its willingness to once again reach out to the Congress for a consensus on the passage of a constitutional amendment to roll out the goods and services tax (GST) legislation.

In an interview to Bloomberg on Tuesday, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said that the NDA “was willing to speak to any of their (Congress) leaders, including vice-president Rahul Gandhi to break the impasse”.

But given the heightened tensions between the parties on the issue of “increased intolerance” under the NDA regime, it remains to be seen if the Congress will reciprocate.

On Tuesday, the Congress led by president Sonia Gandhi presented a memorandum to the President claiming that a sinister campaign is being conducted by forces close to the government to create social tensions. Jaitley countered the allegations by saying that there is no intolerance in India and asked the opposition to fight political battles “politically”.

GST is set to miss its implementation date of 1 April 2016 after the government failed to win opposition’s support for the passage of the constitution amendment bill in the monsoon session of Parliament.

The government is now pinning its hopes on the winter session slated to start from the third week of November.

Support of opposition parties, such as the Congress will be crucial for the bill’s passage in Rajya Sabha where the opposition has two-third majority.

However, the Congress has maintained that it will support the bill only if its demands for changes in the present version of the bill are met. The party wants the government to do away with the additional 1% tax that will be levied over and above the GST rate. In addition, it wants a GST rate of about 18% to be included in the bill itself. It also favours reinstating a clause on the dispute resolution authority.

Anticipating that the constitution amendment bill will get passed in the winter session, the government has finalized three draft legislations on central GST, state GST and integrated GST. State finance ministers are set to meet on 20 November to approve these bills.

GST aims to economically unify the country by removing barriers across states and make India common market for goods and services.

Given the transactional nature of the tax, the government is targeting to implement GST at the beginning of any month in 2016.

Parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu said the government will start interacting with the opposition on key bills, including the GST bill, after the Bihar polls are over while asking the Congress to be more reasonable and constructive in its approach.

“My suggestion to the Congress is to have tolerance and allow the parliament to function. Be tolerant and respect the mandate of the people,” Naidu said.

“The mood of the nation is for development,”he added expressing confidence on passage of the bill in the winter session.

However, reflecting the Congress’s aggressive stance, its leader Anand Sharma on Wednesday said that parliamentary democracy cannot be reduced to just one bill, and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to first shed his confrontationist mindset.

“They should make a real effort to shed this confrontationist mindset by seeking constructive engagement with the opposition,” he said.

“By berating, ridiculing and intimidating them (the opposition) on a daily basis cannot help in creating that atmosphere. It is their call,” the Congress leader added.

Saurabh Kumar of Mint and PTI contributed to this story.

HT Mint, New Delhi, 5th Nov. 2015