Congress playing 'petty politics' over GST Bill: BJP

A BJP spokesperson has alleged that the Congress Party and its leadership are worried about their personal net worth and acquiring properties and do not care about the economic prosperity of the country

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday lashed out at the Congress for not allowing the passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the Rajya Sabha, alleging that the grand old party is playing 'petty politics' over it.

"It's very ironical that they consider this bill not to be a priority. Lot of bills are pending in Parliament and the government wants to clear all of them, including the GST. But, the Congress Party is clearly playing petty politics over this," BJP spokesperson G.V.L Narasimha Rao told ANI.

"The Congress has been shifting its positions on the GST. It's a very important economic legislation. The whole country knows about this. The people of the country are eagerly waiting for it as it can really push the economic growth by near about two percentage points," he added.

Rao alleged that the Congress Party and its leadership are worried about their personal net worth and acquiring properties for the family and they do not care about the economic prosperity of the country.

"We hope wisdom will prevail and they will not stand in the way of the nation's economic development. Otherwise, the people of this country will not forgive Congress Party for their anti-development and anti-economic growth agenda," he said.

Rao further alleged that the Congress Party is trying to switch its positions and also trying to somehow hold Parliament to ransom, adding that it won't be able to continue with this kind of a 'negative agenda'.

Slamming the Congress for holding democracy to ransom over the National Herald case, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday that his government has not taken any step in the case.

"Action has so far not been taken. ED has not issued any notice. Tax authorities have not passed any assessment order," he said at the Aaj Tak Agenda programme. "The government will wait for the outcome of court proceedings. If there is a tax angle, then taxation authorities will ask questions for which there is a due process," he said.