FM agrees to Chidambaram's demand on dispute resolution, rules out GST rate in Bill

Says government has walked the extra mile to convince the Congress

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the government has walked the extra mile to bring the Congress on board for the Goods and Services Tax (GST). He, however, ruled out incorporating GST rates in the constitution amendment Bill as sought by the opposition party. The finance minister also voiced concurrence with his predecessor's demand for a dispute redressal forum.

"The government has walked an extra mile to explain GST to the Congress; their agenda is to paralyse the country," Jaitley said at an event here. He, however, said tariff cannot be written in the Constitution, as demanded by the Congress. The Congress wants GST rate be capped at 18 per cent and that cap included in the Constitution.

Recently, a panel headed by chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian recommended GST in the range of 16.9 to 18.9 per cent which may be seen as an effort to woo the Congress.

Besides other demands of the Congress to include alcohol, petroleum, real estate etc in the new indirect tax regime also found favour with the committee. Jaitley also said, "I have offered to the Congress that the GST council will resolve dispute and form a dispute rederessal forum, as was proposed by P Chidambaram."

Earlier, a dispute resolution authority was proposed to be set up for the purpose. But, after states opposed the idea, it was dropped from the Bill. Now, the task is proposed to be performed by the GST council, comprising the union finance minister and state finance ministers.

The government plans to introduce GST from April one, 2016. However, there has been strong resistance from the Congress on some of the issues. If the Bill is not passed by Parliament in the ongoing session, it would be difficult to implement the new indirect taxation system from the scheduled date. It is so because after the passage of the Bill, at least half of the states need to approve it. Then GST Bills need to be passed by Parliament and respective state legislatures.

The Constitution amendment Bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha, but is stuck in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling National Democratic Alliance lacks majority.

Meanwhile, the National Herald case is scheduled to come up in the Delhi court on December 19.

Jaitley said the government has no role in the case and there is no file relating to the case in the enforcement directorate.

He blamed the Congress for allegedly holding country's democracy to ransom over the web it created by its own financial transaction in the National Herald case.