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Ahead of all-party meet Jaitley and Chidambaram spar over GST

by IBNS 24 Nov 2015, 07:24 pm

New Delhi, Nov 25 (IBNS) Ahead of the Wednesday's all-party meeting on Goods and Services Tax to minimise the areas of confrontation between the government and the opposition, Finance Minister Arun Jatiley and his predecessor, Congress leader P Chidambaram were engaged in a battle of words.

Jaitley on Tuesday offered to discuss with the Congress changes in the GST bill, but also said that some of the party's demands can "damage" more than benefit the system.

It would be "extremely unfair" to the country "if we try to impose in the name of political compromise, a GST with a defective architecture," he  said at an event organized by industry body ASSOCHAM.

Responding to the comments,  Chidambaram tweeted on Wednesday morning: "FM's confrontational speech at ASSOCHAM not the best way to reach out to opposition on GST."


The GST bill aims at creating a single market in India for the first time since independence and is expected to boost the economy.

Though the government wants to implement the new regime from April 1, the Congress blocked the bill  in the last session of Parliament over its demand that a revenue-neutral rate not higher than 18 per cent be mentioned in the Constitution Amendment bill.

"We are reaching out to them, we are willing to discuss with them because some of these suggestions may not necessarily be in the larger interest of the GST structure,"  Jaitley said. He, however, added that those stalling reforms should realise that space for obsolete thinking is now shrinking and those who support reforms is much bigger than those who obstruct.

"The wisdom which dawned on my friends in the Congress party had not dawned on them when Pranab Mukherjee (as Finance Minister) introduced the GST (in 2011). It did not dawn on them when (then Finance Minister) P Chidambaram accepted the Standing Committee recommendations but to come out with the preposterous suggestion that tariff must be mentioned in the Constitution document so that in a given exigency if tariff has to be altered you need a two-third majority in both houses of Parliament and has to go to each of the states," he said.