Govt agrees, Lok Sabha to take up GST after finance Bill

The gov­ern­ment on Mon­day acced­ed to the Con­gress-led opposition’s demand in Par­lia­ment to defer a dis­cus­sion on the goods and ser­vices tax (GST) con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment bill till after the pas­sage of the finance bill in the Lok Sabha.

The Con­gress and some oth­er par­ties had protest­ed and staged a walk­out when the gov­ern­ment moved the GST con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment bill on Fri­day. They had argued that the Lok Sab­ha tra­di­tion­al­ly took up the oth­er leg­isla­tive agen­da only after dis­cus­sion on the demands for grants of var­i­ous min­istries and the finance bill.

The con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment was orig­i­nal­ly list­ed in Mon­day’s Lok Sab­ha agenda.

A senior min­is­ter said the opposition’s reser­va­tions were on pro­ce­dur­al issues, not on the bil­l’s con­tent. Also, that many MPs, includ­ing from the rul­ing coali­tion, want­ed to speak dur­ing the dis­cus­sion on grants, leav­ing lit­tle time for the GST Bill. A min­is­ter said the Lok Sab­ha would now take up for dis­cus­sion and pas­sage the bills on unac­count­ed mon­ey, land acqui­si­tion and GST from May 5 to 8. The two Hous­es will have a long week­end on account of May Day on May 1, fol­lowed by the week­end and then Bud­dha Purn­i­ma on May 4.

Source: Busi­ness Standard