The Narendra Modi government may call for an early Budget session to pass the GST Constitution amendment bill.
This was stated by Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu after meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh at 10 Janpath.
The Congress had been saying that there was "no response from the government" to their "three precise objections" on the GST bill, conveyed to the PM by the Sonia-Manmohan duo, at a meeting called by PM Modi.
Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram levelled this charge last week in a press conference at the Congress headquarters.
Naidu’s step of calling on Sonia is believed to be one step forward in this direction.
The Congress’s objections on the GST Bill are – it wants a constitutional cap on the GST rate; withdrawal of one per cent tax on inter-state movement of goods; and a dispute resolution panel headed by a Supreme Court judge.
The party also believes that two of the three objections have been endorsed by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian.
The government is not willing to accept the Congress demand of a constitutional cap in the Constitution amendment bill. It may meet the principal Opposition party half way through on the other two measures.
Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma told BW Businessworld after the meeting that "it's still work in progress".
Naidu is believed to have conveyed to the Congress top leadership the government position. Naidu later said that the Congress has said that they would discuss the matter within the party and get back to the government.
BW Reporters
Suman K Jha was the deputy editor with BW Businessworld
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