Will GST Bill See Light Of Day?

The Narendra Modi government is confident of passing the GST Bill, but the Opposition Congress is hellbent on playing the spoilsport

- Suman K. Jha

A bizarre theory doing the rounds in the capital is that the Indian National Congress, which seems to be opposing the Goods and Services Tax Bill (GST), only wants to defer it by a year. The theory is that it would like the NDA government to bear the full brunt of the teething troubles the indirect tax reforms may entail, like an all-round rise in prices, on the eve of the general elections 2019.

The Narendra Modi government is keen to roll out the GST by 1 April 2017, so it may have enough time to prepare for the Big Test in 2019. At this juncture, the Modi government is confident that it would be able to get the GST Bill passed in the monsoon session of Parliament, starting 18 July. While the Congress leadership remains adamant on the three-point agenda that party president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had proposed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, another detractor the AIADMK has softened.

An AIADMK leader, requesting anonymity, says the GST legislation will, in all probability, be passed in the forthcoming session of Parliament, notwithstanding the AIADMK’s principled opposition to the indirect tax reforms.

After J. Jayalalithaa’s re-election as Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, PM Modi was among the first to congratulate her. A bridge-building exercise by Union ministers ensued, led by finance minister Arun Jaitley. A tirade against her by some Union ministers did rub Jayalalithaa the wrong way, but the PM’s gesture is believed to have softened her, say sources. Recently, she had a cordial meeting with Modi during her visit to Delhi.

So the AIADMK, which had raised “principled objections” to the GST regime at the empowered committee meeting in Kolkata recently, could walk out of the Rajya Sabha during the voting on the Bill to provide the much needed breathing space to the BJP-led government. The party has 13 members in the Rajya Sabha.