New Rajya Sabha math emboldens govt to make renewed push for GST

Monsoon session likely to start in third week of July

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs is slated to meet on Wednesday to fix the schedule for the forthcoming monsoon session. The session, likely to start in the third week of July, will see the government make a renewed push for the passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Constitution amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed hope that the "arithmetic" of the Rajya Sabha, after the recent biennial elections, could favour the passage of the GST Bill. He singled out the Congress as the only opponent to the GST. He termed those against the key tax reform as "anti-poor".

According to the government arithmetic (see chart), the GST Bill should get the requisite two-thirds majority after the altered numbers in the Upper House. The government has been emboldened by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s recent electoral performance and losses the Congress suffered - both in Assembly polls as well as in the Rajya Sabha elections.

Modi also indicated that he was willing to go to Congress President Sonia Gandhi's house to convince her to support the GST Bill. The Congress will take a final decision once its vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, returns from his overseas sojourn. But the party, as some in the Congress said, shouldn't be seen as the only obstacle when all other parties were likely to support the Bill.

Significantly, Modi didn't place the J Jayalalithaa-led All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) among the opponents of the Bill - suggesting a rapprochement on the issue. He named opposition chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh (Akhilesh Yadav), West Bengal (Mamata Banerjee, Bihar (Nitish Kumar) and Odisha (Naveen Patnaik) as supporters of the tax reform. Modi also said that it wasn't correct to categorise several of the non-BJP and non-NDA parties as "opposition" as these have supported the government legislation.

The session is likely to start on July 18 and end on August 13. But a decision will be taken by the Home Minister Rajnath Singh-headed Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.