“The next three days are crucial with very important pieces of legislation coming up before our parliament”, Jaitley said here addressing the annual general meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci). He added that the only collateral reason he suspected was “if I (Congress) couldn’t do it, then why should somebody else do it?” He added that politics should not become a hurdle to national interest, PTI reported. “Next to GST, Bankruptcy legislation will be the biggest reform”, Das said.
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He maintained that a delayed GST Bill is better than a flawed GST..
GST is being touted as the biggest reform in indirect taxation since Independence. “It has been made a decision to pass the pending government bills even by sitting for late hours”, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters after the meeting.
“Constitution prescribed tariffs actually can be an albatross around the neck of the future generation”. They want the GST rate to be prescribed in the bill, to which the government says tax rates can not be “cast in stone’. April 1, 2016, is notsacrosanct and not achievable at all”.
At an all-party meeting, called by Rajya Sabha chairperson Hamid Ansari, it was made a decision to restore order in the House for passage of bill in the remaining days.
Jaitley explained: “There is no point saying that “GST is good and we brought in the GST proposal, but”, I think this “but” is a bad phrase as far as Indian politics is concerned”.
On the revision of India’s GDP for the current fiscal to 7-7.5% on Friday, from 8-8.5%, as forecast by finance ministry economists in February, Jaitley said India is growing at a much faster rate, while the global economy is growing at a “modest pace”.
The Bill on bankruptcy code has fixed a timeline of 180 days, extendable by another 90 days, for resolving cases of insolvency or bankruptcy.
On the matter of the ease of doing business, he said that India had nearly ceased to be a centre for dispute adjudication and arbitration.
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Regarding the Commercial Disputes Resolution Bill, he said it seeks to expedite resolution of such disputes which remain pending in courts for years and decades.
