Govt to reach out to opposition to get GST Bill passed: Arun Jaitley
Dated 17th November, 2015
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the government would make all efforts to persuade the Opposition for the passage of Constitution amendment bill for implementation of GST in the winter session.
“The process of economic reforms is a continuing one, no reform legislation is stopped in Parliament in past though delay may occur … make efforts with opposition to get GST passed by Upper House in coming Parliament session,” he said at UAE India Economic Forum 2015 Meeting here.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST), which will subsume more than a dozen state levies to create a single market, is to be implemented from April 1, 2016. But the deadline may be missed if Parliament does not pass the Constitution Amendment Bill in the upcoming winter session beginning November 26.
The Bill has been passed in the Lok Sabha, it is awaiting clearance from the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA lacks a majority.
The main opposition party Congress has been opposing the passage demanding inclusion of few things in the Bill.
The Finance Minister expressed hope that main opposition party would take a rational view and support GST, a step for rationalisation of indirect taxes.
With regard to growth Jaitley said, slowdown in China has impact on India but fall in prices of commodities have been favourable to India.
“Despite monsoon shortage we would be able to meet the challenge of growth…we would be able to grow better than last year despite global slowdown,” he said.
Indian economy grew by 7.3 per cent during 2014-15.
Talking about various steps taken by the government with regard to ease of doing business, he said tax reforms have been expedited including no retrospective taxation; rationalisation of taxes etc.
Besides, the government has taken steps to rationalise subsidies.
The process of economic reforms would continue despite some bottlenecks being created by certain quarter, he added. Jaitley further said the government has taken various steps to bring down the stress of banking sector, including ecapitalisation of banks.
Speaking on the occasion, Mohammed Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Alshehhi, Under-Secretary at the UAE Ministry of Economy, said, “India and the UAE share a very special bond of friendship and partnership. There are many success stories of UAE investment in India. We look forward to more investments and increased trade opportunities between the two countries.”
According to Ficci President Jyotsna Suri, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UAE brought a transformation in the India-UAE relationship.
Later in the day, Jaitley met Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Makhtoum, the Minister of Finance of UAE, and discussed issues of mutual cooperation in field of economic and trade development among others.
During the meeting, he raised the issue of longer visa for Indian businessmen who have made large investment for long duration in the UAE.
At present, businessmen are given visa at a time for two years which has to be extended/renewed every time.
Jaitley also invited large participation and investment in recently constituted National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) by the Sovereign Wealth Funds and Pensions Funds of the UAE region.
He said that the investment in NIIF will ensure good returns on investment as the Government will invest these funds in infrastructure projects.
Jaitley also raised the issue of fresh negotiations among officials of India and the UAE for finalising the terms of reference of the new Bilateral Investment Promotion Agreement (BIPA) as the existing BIPA is expiring by December end this year.
Both the leaders also condemned the recent terrorists attack in Paris in which many human lives were lost. They expressed their concern and sought joint efforts by the countries to tackle this menace of terrorism.
(This article is published in The Financial Express on 17 Nov, 2015)