Bill on GST referred to select committee

A Constitution Amendment Bill providing for roll out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was on Tuesday referred to a select committee after the Opposition insisted on its legislative scrutiny of the proposed legislation in Rajya Sabha where the government faces the numbers crunch.

The 21-member panel will give its report by the last day of the first week of the Monsoon session.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved the motion for referring the Bill (The Constitution One Hundred and Twenty-second Amendment Bill, 2014 to the Select Committee.

The Committee constitutes of Bhupender Yadav, Chandan Mitra and Ajay Sancheti (of BJP), Madhusudan Mistry, Mani Shankar Aiyar and Bhalchandra Mungekar (of Congress), Naresh Agrawal (SP), K C Tyagi (JD-U), Derek O'Brien (Trinamool Congress), Satish Chandra Misra (BSP), A Navaneethakrishnan (AIADMK), K N Balagopal (CPI-M), Dilip Kumar Tirkey (BJD), C M Ramesh (TDP), Praful Patel (NCP), Kanimozhi (DMK), Anil Desai (Shiv Sena), Naresh Gujral (SAD), Mohammad Fayaz (PDP), D Raja (CPI), Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Independent). The GST Bill was approved by Lok Sabha on Wednesday last after a walkout by Congress. Congress floor managers in the Rajya Sabha had made it clear to the government that it will not be possible for them to back the bill in the Upper House without referring it to a Select Committee.

While AIADMK was the only party to have declared its opposition to the economic reform measure, the Congress was adamant that it should be sent to a Select Committee for examining the changes that were brought into it by the NDA dispensation.