New Delhi: Government on Friday rejected the conditions put up by Congress for supporting the long-delayed GST legislation, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley saying these are "after-thought" and were not part of the bill that the party had itself introduced.
"I do not think it is very part of prudent politics for any party to put pre-conditions, particularly on a matter which involves a fiscal relationship between the Centre and the states," Jaitley told reporters.
He was replying to a question about the three pre-conditions put forth by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram for Congress party to support GST.
Indirect tax reform GST proposes to create an uniform tax rate across the country by subsuming excise, service tax and other local levies. GST is estimated to boost India's GDP by 1-2 per cent. The Government had proposed to introduce the new regime from April 1, 2016.
Due to disruptions by Congress, the government could not get the GST Constitution Amendment Bill passed in the Monsoon session of Parliament which ended on Thursday.
The government is also keeping its options open on calling a special session of Parliament to get the long-delayed GST bill passed.
Addressing press conferences in different parts of the country to 'expose' Congress party, senior union ministers including Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman and Prakash Javadekar also put the blame on the main opposition party for the delay in getting this key reform bill passed.
The ministers also maintained that the government is 'optimistic' about meeting the rollout target for the uniform nationwide tax regime from April 2016.
Talking about the pre-conditions put forth by Congress, Jaitley said the first condition of a constitutional cap of 18 per cent on GST rate was not Chidambaram's proposal in the Bill as approved by him after the Standing Committee recommendation in 2013.
"Nor the then Finance Minister's (Pranab Mukherjee's) proposal, when he introduced the bill in 2011 had any 18 per cent cap. So that is clearly an after-thought," he said.
Jaitley said the rates would be decided as per the fiscal position and economic situation, and Constitution need not be amended for that.
On dispute redressal authority, the Standing Committee had unanimously recommended that we must not have the dispute redressal mechanism or authority in the Bill, he said.
"All Congress party members were privy to that report. Chidambaram accepted that report in 2013, and then accepted the formula that disputes should be resolved in the GST Council which is one third central voting power, 2/3 states with a 3/4th majority required for any decision," Jaitley said.
So both these two conditions are contrary to what its own stand was when he was finance minister, he added. The third condition of up to one per cent additional tax for inter state movement of goods, was a compromise between the centre and the states, to which Congress party states were privy.
Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Power Piyush Goyal said in Ahmedabad that the government will work out alternatives to implement the GST and accused the Congress of "insulting the people of the country" by disrupting the legislative business in the just-concluded Parliament session.
Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she is 'very optimistic' about getting the GST and other key bills passed in Parliament despite Congress' disruptions.
The government would seek to work with other parties in this regard, she told reporters in Chennai.
Union Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters in Lucknow that the GST Bill will "definitely" be passed and claimed the government enjoys "majority" in Rajya Sabha as well on getting this bill passed.
Hinting at a special session for passage of GST, Javadekar said, ""As you know this session has been adjourned sine die, but not prorogued."
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