Congress ready to give 'conditional' support to GST

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said his party was ready to support the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in parliament once the government accepts the opposition party's conditions.

"The day the conditions are accepted, we will help pass it in just 15 minutes," Gandhi assured during his interaction with management students of the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies at Vile Parle here.

He expressed willingness for a 'compromise' on GST with the government by discussing it across the table, but alleged that the government was not ready for it.

Gandhi pointed out that it was the Congress which had introduced the GST bill, but the BJP had stopped it in parliament for seven years.

"(Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley did not allow it to pass then, and Narendra Modi, then Gujarat chief minister, also did not allow GST," he said, referring to the roadblocks confronting the proposed legislation.

"Jaitley does not have to tell me GST is good. I know it's good. But we don't want a GST without a cap on taxes, we want a limitation on the maximum tax that can be charged," he added.

The Congress leader denied that it was the strategy of the party to block parliament on the issue.