The Congress also wants an independent dispute settlement mechanism, the government is flexible on this issue. Sharma, however, said he was yet to hear from the government about the meeting.
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In a step forward, all political parties, including Congress, agreed to allot five hours to debate Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Rajya Sabha, even as government said it would seek to evolve a consensus to pass the bill “unanimously”.
Though the Congress chief refused to divulge what transpired and deflected queries saying it was ” purely an exchange of pleasantries”, some Congress leaders claimed that efforts are on to work out a compromise on the GST.
According to official sources, the government will hold more meetings with Opposition parties to build a consensus on the GST bill. BJP is bracing for the Opposition assault over its alleged attempts to destabilise governments in states ruled by non-NDA parties. The government is in the process of drafting the details of the proposed amendments after which it will formally approach the Congress party.
The PM’s remarks came after Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal complained that the bill was becoming a bilateral affair between BJP and Congress and warned that his party could stall the legislation. “That is why we have said it has to be firmly ring-fenced”, senior Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said. We will not leave it to the Executive or the Government of the day on its own to change that. Rajnath Singh, on the other hand stated all parties would be taken along on Kashmir, and spoke about the use of pellets and use water-canons or tear gas, the report said. As a result, Parliament has got a lot more productive-of the eight Bills passed in the Winter Session, seven were in the Rajya Sabha where the NDA lacks a majority and a total of 17 Bills were passed in the Budget Session including important ones like the real estate, bankruptcy and Aadhaar Bills.
On his part, Sharma said, “We will be waiting now for the next meeting which will be a formal consultation where a concrete response will be given for us to take this matter ahead in the right direction”.
“We have also said that unlike the present ruling dispensation – the BJP – which opposed it for partisan politics, the Congress opposition is principled and has rich merit on all the issues that we have raised”.
“Noting that Congress party had authored the bill, Sharma said”, Please take out the bill which we cleared- UPA Cabinet- and which we gave to Parliament.
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“Bihar is not a manufacturing state, so we do not lose too much”.
