Leaders of various political parties from both Houses of Parliament participated in the meeting which was convened by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu in Parliament complex.
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The proposed goods and services tax (GST) should be set at a rate of less than 20 per cent, the opposition Congress party said on Thursday, signalling willingness to compromise as long as the government takes into account its concerns.
“These bills are for reforms in the country and for the development of all”, he said.
In 2015, the government tried but failed to enact legislation relating to key reforms-goods and services tax and land acquisition-as it lacks majority in the upper house of the parliament.
“We are talking to everyone”.
The winter session, coming almost two weeks after BJP’s drubbing in the crucial Bihar polls, is expected to witness closer floor coordination between opposition parties to take on the Narendra Modi government. “They are all tolerant, but the government or the party which constitutes the government, that is intolerant”, said Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, hours after an all-party meet on Wednesday. “They should do the same”.
The Congress continued to hold its GST cards close to its chest.
The government countered Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, saying that it had reached out to the Opposition.
In addition to the standoff, Congress says the GST should be levied at a rate of around 18 per cent – lower than sought by many federal states ruled by Modi’s BJP. “So they have to see in the discussion and in that context also whether we are going to make our commitment to Constitution or not”, he said. “Consensus can be built through discussion…numbers are with the GST bill, most parties support it”, Jaitley had told NDTV.
But the Congress sources said the government till now had not approached the party.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari had admitted a motion to discuss rising incidents of religious intolerance in the country.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated in a tv interview on Wednesday night time that these three Congress calls for had not been included in its unique GST invoice. “We want a cap on the amount of tax that can be charged”, Gandhi said in Bengaluru.
The other big development towards GST getting the Congress support is the government dropping its reluctance to the one per cent additional tax at origin which was brought in at the demands of manufacturing states like Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
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“We are ready to have debate on those issues as well”, he added.
