The session that is scheduled to have 20 sittings till August 12 has a plethora of business for clearance, including much awaited Goods and Service Tax Bill and nearly half a dozen other contentious legislations.
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At a meeting of NDA constituents, he said the government will talk to all parties and seek to build a consensus for its passage.
The Prime Minister said all political parties are representative of the people and, therefore, national issues should be kept above everything else. The government and the Congress are likely to hold the next meeting on Tuesday, added the report. “The threshold which is acceptable to Indian economy, the consumer and the industry, that is why the Congress Party has insisted on capping it. We hope the government has registered a very legitimate demand of the Congress Party which has rich merit”, he said.
A total of 25 bills, including the GST Bill, are expected to come up for consideration and passage during the session.
The party wants an 18 per cent cap on tax to be levied, scrapping of the proposal to levy an additional one per cent tax and wants formation of a GST disputes settlement authority specified in the bill.
Briefing their long conversation with oppositions through telephone and outside the Parliament, PMO reverted to news agencies as Congress has most probably agreed over the Bill and thus finds a clear path in the Assembly.
The main contention is over the federal power that wrests with state governments.
“The mechanism to compensate the states that lose their revenue with the introduction of the GST will have to be properly addressed”.
The former members who died recently were Prabhulal Rawat, Shakeelur Rehman, Pravin Rashtrapal (sitting Rajya Sabha member and a former Lok Sabha member), K Anirudhan, Rudra Madhab Ray and Neil Aloysius O’Brien. BJP will not be able to get the GST Bill passed without the support of Congress. GST is not simply limited to congress. BJP is trying to make up with Congress through GST.
In Bihar, both, the JD(U) and the RJD, are backing the GST bill.
“Bihar is not a manufacturing state, so we do not lose too much”.
” I believe that all the parties and the leaders over the past few days whether individually or collectively, have shared the sentiments that we are committed to take best of the decisions for the benefit of the country and to carry the nation forward on a fast track, ” the Prime Minister said.
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Given the government is keen on passing the GST Bill, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has staunchly pitched for multi-party support for the same. “We maintain that stand”, Ambeth Rajan, senior BSP leader and Rajya Sabha member told reporters.
