The Centre wants to push the GST Bill through Parliament in the winter session to be able to meet an April 2016 deadline to implement a new tax regime
New Delhi:
Over lunch on Monday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley discussed the government's key reform measure, the Goods and Services Tax or GST Bill with senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Anand Sharma.
Sources described the talks as "inconclusive" and "work in progress." Another meeting is expected when the Congress' leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge is back in Delhi.
Meanwhile, the chances of GST - which will create a single market in India after doing away with state levies - being passed in the Winter session of Parliament have got bleaker.
There are now six working days of the session left. The Congress says it needs time to study the government's proposals to address what it has called three non-negotiable changes in the Bill.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu too was present at the lunch meeting, where the government reportedly told the Congress that it was ready to abolish a 1 per cent additional tax on manufacturers and look at setting up an independent dispute resolution mechanism for GST, two key demands of the main opposition party.
What it has not agreed to, sources said, is pre-fixing GST at 18 per cent.
The government has held several meetings with the Congress, including one over tea between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
The BJP-led central government wants to push the bill through Parliament in the winter session to be able to meet a deadline to implement a new tax regime in the country by April 2016. To do this, it needs on board the opposition Congress, which has a majority in the Rajya Sabha.
The Congress stoutly denies the government's charge that it is linking support on GST to the summons to appear in court that party chief Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul have received in the National Herald case. The Congress disrupted Parliament proceeding all of last week alleging "political vendetta."
Congressman and former union minister Jairam Ramesh told NDTV, "Our Vice President has said repeatedly... that our stance in Parliament has nothing to do with the GST Bill. Rahul Gandhi has stated that the Congress wants a pro-industry, pro-trade, pro-consumer GST."
Sources described the talks as "inconclusive" and "work in progress." Another meeting is expected when the Congress' leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge is back in Delhi.
Meanwhile, the chances of GST - which will create a single market in India after doing away with state levies - being passed in the Winter session of Parliament have got bleaker.
There are now six working days of the session left. The Congress says it needs time to study the government's proposals to address what it has called three non-negotiable changes in the Bill.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu too was present at the lunch meeting, where the government reportedly told the Congress that it was ready to abolish a 1 per cent additional tax on manufacturers and look at setting up an independent dispute resolution mechanism for GST, two key demands of the main opposition party.
What it has not agreed to, sources said, is pre-fixing GST at 18 per cent.
The government has held several meetings with the Congress, including one over tea between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
The BJP-led central government wants to push the bill through Parliament in the winter session to be able to meet a deadline to implement a new tax regime in the country by April 2016. To do this, it needs on board the opposition Congress, which has a majority in the Rajya Sabha.
The Congress stoutly denies the government's charge that it is linking support on GST to the summons to appear in court that party chief Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul have received in the National Herald case. The Congress disrupted Parliament proceeding all of last week alleging "political vendetta."
Congressman and former union minister Jairam Ramesh told NDTV, "Our Vice President has said repeatedly... that our stance in Parliament has nothing to do with the GST Bill. Rahul Gandhi has stated that the Congress wants a pro-industry, pro-trade, pro-consumer GST."
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