The Union government will give the long-pending Goods and Services Tax (GST) Constitution Amendment Bill precedence over the controversial Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, sensing a better chance of passing the former if sequenced that way, sources said here on Wednesday.
The GST Bill’s passage will require a constitutional amendment, which means a two-thirds majority was required in Parliament. The Assemblies too will have to approve the Bill ahead of the April 2016 deadline.
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By bringing the GST Bill first, the government feels it stands a better chance of ensuring the Congress’s support, as the party had originally brought the Bill when it headed the previous United Progressive Alliance government. The Congress is the second largest party in the Lok Sabha and the largest in the Rajya Sabha, and its support in the two Houses would be crucial for the passage of the Bill.
But there are two more reasons for this sequencing. The government does not wish to annoy the Congress by bringing the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill to the Rajya Sabha as the party, along with a majority of the other Opposition parties are opposed to it. Equally, if not more, important for the government is the fact that it needs first to deal with the political fallout of the Opposition’s campaign on the streets and inside Parliament against the Land Bill, one that climaxed in a dramatic march of the Opposition, led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, from Parliament House to the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday.
Ruling party MPs and senior Ministers privately acknowledge that the march has damaged the BJP, particularly in rural India among the farming community.
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The BJP, therefore, has decided that it needs an outreach campaign on the Land Bill and the party’s leadership has asked all its MPs to use the coming weeks and months to try and change the optics on it, by explaining to their constituents the government’s reasons for wishing to amend the 2013 Act.