GST Bill row: BJP shrugs off Rahul's 'tax cap' demand

Downplaying Congress' demand for a cap on taxation percentage in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill , Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said it is time for the grand old party to take a call on the landmark bill and support it.

"Many people feel that there is no need to have any cap as far as the taxation percentage is concerned. So, it is for the Congress Party to now take a call. The government has already agreed to the GST Bill, despite what Rahul Gandhi has said yesterday," Naidu told the media here.

"The Congress Party has raised three issues during the meeting with the Prime Minister. The Finance Minister has explained the position about the government's thinking to it. If putting cap was so important, the Congress could have brought it in the original GST Bill," he added.

Naidu appealed to the Congress to understand that the people of the nation want the GST to be passed at the earliest.

"It is the need of the hour. It will really strengthen the economy, help the states and the Centre also. Keeping that in mind, the Congress must come and support the bill, which they themselves will bring before the Parliament," he said.

Naidu's reaction comes after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi assured the Centre that following the agreement of their three demands, the GST Bill will be passed in fifteen minutes.

"The Congress party actually brought the GST to the table. It was a conceptualised and designed by us, by Manmohan Singh ji and our economic team. Arun Jaitley who wants the GST to happen, did not allow it to be passed for seven years. Manmohan had umpteen conversations with Mr. Narendra Modi who was the chief minister of Gujarat but he did not allow the bill to be passed," Rahul said.

Talking about the demands by the Congress regarding the Bill, he asserted that the most important issue was that there should be a cap on taxes and demanded a limitation on the maximum tax that can be charged on the people.