NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi good-naturedly accepted some ribbing from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in parliament today as he presented the government's case for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) proposal to be urgently cleared.
"You were smiling yesterday," Mr Jaitley said to the Congress chief about a remark made by a parliamentarian from her party that criticized the government for trying to push through the bill without allowing a parliamentary committee to review it. "I am smiling even now," said Mrs Gandhi, offering evidence of her statement. "I'm glad you are smiling at least at Mr Ranjan's comment... but the last laugh is always the louder one," Mr Jaitley rebutted.
The GST bill seeks to transform the country into a common market; recent amendments made by the government to enlist the support of states risk diluting the impact of the biggest tax reform in decades, some analysts have alleged.
The government has managed to introduce the bill for the Goods and Services Tax in the Lok Sabha, where it has a majority- Speaker Sumitra Mahajan yesterday over-ruled the opposition's demand for it to be first examined by a committee. The government will find it harder to bring the bill in the Rajya Sabha, where it is in a minority and is struggling to push through legislation key for the Prime Minister's economic agenda.
"I beseech you, "Mr Jaitley said to the opposition yesterday, to "rise above partisan" stands and clear the proposal for what would amount to a national sales tax in this session of parliament which ends on Friday.
After parliament clears the proposal, it has to be ratified by more than one half of the 29 states to allow central and state governments to get equal powers to tax goods and services.
What Mr Jaitley calls the biggest tax reform since independence in 1947 could add as much as 2 percentage points to the growth of Asia's third-largest economy, says the government. It has been 12 years since the tax was first mooted.