Enough of delay, work together to pass GST: TMC

Asserting that there has been enough delay in passing the Good and Services Tax (GST) Bill, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has urged both the Congress and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to get their acts together and pass the long withstanding bill.

"When the BJP was in opposition, they were stalling the GST. Now, the Congress is in opposition and they are stalling it. And all of us, the middle parties, except the Communist, want the GST," TMC leader Derek O'Brien told ANI.

"I urge the government and the Congress to get their acts together and pass GST in this Parliament Session. They are both to blame for this delay," he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday chaired the 11th meeting of Inter-State Council in the national capital.

The meeting that looks at disputes between states and between the states and Centre saw the presence of many formidable opponents of the BJP such as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley earlier had a number of rounds of discussions with the Chief Ministers of various states with regard to the GST.

The proposed tax reform, India's biggest revenue shake-up since independence, seeks to replace a slew of federal and state levies, transforming the nation into a Customs Union.

The Congress Party, the original author of the tax reform, has said that it would back the GST if the government agreed to cap the tax rate at 18 percent and create an independent mechanism to resolve disputes on revenue sharing between the states.