“Our 70 year old journey will scale new heights in this session. I am sure that the government moves in that direction and we in turn move in that direction voting for it”, he said.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is greeted by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. “All of us represent both the people and parties and let’s keep national interests above everything else”.
Since November, according to The Economic Times, the Congress has been insisting that a specified GST rate of 18% should be capped in the Constitutional Amendment Bill, the 1% additional tax abolished and a GST Disputes Settlement Authority formed to settle state disputes. The BJP has had no issues getting the support necessary in the lower house, where it has dominated since the 2014 general election, but opposition’s acquiescence in the Rajya Sabha, it appears, will only be forthcoming as a result of political wheeling-and-dealing.
In case of the GST bill, the BJP has an advantage: nearly all regional parties have asked for a speedy implementation of the bill. “One important issue of Jammu and Kashmir has already been taken up”, he said. “Various parties have given statements on Kashmir events which benefited the country”.
The Congress will now hold internal consultations on the issue following which a formal meeting between leaders of the main opposition party and finance minister Arun Jaitley could take place either Friday or Saturday.
Speaking to reporters, Azad accused the government of “using all tricks” to destabilise Opposition-ruled governments and took potshots at Modi over his talk of cooperation between the Centre and states by pointing out that even a BJP ally like Akali Dal has attacked it over “undermining” states.
Despite deep-seated political differences, the Congress party gave the government its support to a landmark bankruptcy bill at the last session. We will support it on merit. “We are the architects of the bill”, Shukla told ANI outside the Parliament here.
Congress agreed with the Prime Minister’s comments that states should share terror-related intelligence with the Centre, he said, adding BJP itself did politics over terrorism.
The government yesterday called an all-party meeting to seek the support of opposition parties in the passage of pending legislations.
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Considered to be as one of the most important legislation for the Session this particular Bill will introduce Goods and Service Tax in the country likewise other first world nations. We want to pass the GST bill with consensus. “They will also be discussing with their leadership, after which we will have a second meeting during the Parliament session”, he said.
