With Pranab Mukherjee providing them a revised draft of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, the BJP has called Finance Ministers of eight NDA—ruled states for a meeting here tomorrow to discuss the indirect tax reform and build a consensus in its favour.
“Mr. Mukherjee sent me a revised draft of the proposed GST.
I did not go through it but have handed it over to (former Finance Minister) Yashwant Sinha to read it and inform us about the changes,” Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said.
The UPA government has also convened a meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) on GST tomorrow. Some of the Congress—ruled states are said to have some apprehensions over the proposed GST.
Ms. Swaraj said she has invited Finance Ministers of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Punjab for a meeting tomorrow evening to discuss the new proposals of the government. Some of the senior party leaders will also be present.
Though BJP, in principle, is supporting the proposed GST, which will replace existing sales tax, excise tax, Octroi and other taxes with a single tax structure, it wants some of its concerns to be addressed in the Bill.
BJP—ruled Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand have some reservations and have opposed the Bill in the last few meetings with union Finance Minister Mukherjee.
These concerns were also conveyed by BJP Parliamentary Party head L K Advani, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her counterpart in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley to Mukherjee at a luncheon meeting.
BJP top brass would take a view on the issue after looking at the revised draft it received today and is then likely to make efforts to convince Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand to shelve their opposition to GST.
Sources said the government will introduce GST Bill in the ongoing Parliament session to start the constitutional amendment process needed to enforce the Act by April 1, 2011.
Other than the two Houses of Parliament, at least 15 state assemblies will have to approve the legislation.
