Jaitley hopeful of GST Bill in ensuing Budget session
After hitting the Congress wall in two successive Parliament sessions, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday exuded confidence that landmark GST Bill will be passed in the next session as numbers in the Rajya Sabha will tilt in favour of the new indirect tax regime.
“The next session is going to be extremely important. And half way through the next session, the numbers of the Upper House are also going to change. So I am reasonably optimistic, as far as the next session is concerned, that we may be able to push it through,” Jaitley said.
Parliament’s Budget session will start in last week of February.
Addressing the officer trainees of the Indian Revenue Service, he said there is virtually a consensus for GST among political parties and “everybody supports it”.
“…Parliamentary obstructionism has prevented it from happening in the last two sessions”.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) that will subsume all indirect taxes like excise duty, service tax and sales tax into one uniform rate, is stuck in Rajya Sabha where main opposition Congress wants three changes.
Congress stalled the passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill in last two sessions, derailing government’s plan to roll out GST from April 1, 2016.
Jaitley said the concept of GST was first conceived in 2006 and the Constitution Amendment Bill was first introduced in 2011, but the UPA government could not build a consensus with the states.
Read full article: Hindustan Times
BANGALORE: There's a fresh row between the Congress and BJP, this time over Income Tax raids in Karnataka. The BJP Read more
The investigation into illegal access to mobile phone call details of BJP leader Arun Jaitley has opened a Pandora’s box. Read more
NEW DELHI: In the dock once in 2006 for illegally tapping former SP leader Amar Singh's phone, private detective Anurag Read more
The Cyberabad Police have registered an FIR against YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy for allegedly disrespecting the national anthem. Read more
