Will Jaitley and Mamata share stage at Bengal business summit this week?

Will Finance Minister Arun Jaitley grace the Bengal Global Business Summit, slated for later this week? The outcome of Monday’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting might answer this.

Sources in the Union finance ministry indicated a decision on his participation at the state government's annual investor meet was yet to be taken. "A final call would be after tomorrow's GST Council meet," said an official. "Such important decisions cannot be based on GST meetings. Monday’s meeting will be the ninth. It is unlikely that the finance minister would link the two issues."

The GST Council will be meeting for the ninth time on Monday. They'd try to resolve the impasse on control of assessees having an annual turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crore under the proposed regime. The issue, among many others, has been holding up the GST's launch, the target date for which is still April.

The state government, however, appeared to be sure of Jaitley's presence at the summit, as of Saturday, as the agency handling it, had issued a release to be published in the "engagement column" on January 20, saying that the Finance Minister would grace the occasion along with Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi. The summit will be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee.

The matter, however, was recalled on Sunday. The matter sent to the media for publishing in the engagement column mentioning some names of the dignitaries cannot be confirmed at this moment. Hence, it should not be published at this moment. "We shall confirm the names of the dignitaries who actually grace the occasion later for publishing," read the mail.

Last year, central government ministers had come in strength. Jaitley, his coal and power counterpart, Piyush Goyal; minister of road transport, highways and shipping, Nitin Gadkari; and railways minister Suresh Prabhu were present.

Jaitley was invited much ahead of the November 8 demonetisation, which has been heavily criticised by state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. She has led a delegation of opposition party leaders to Rashtrapati Bhavan, held rallies in Delhi with city Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and in Uttar Pradesh with tacit support of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. 

The other recent flashpoint with the ruling party at the Centre is the arrest of two of her MPs, Tapas Pal and Sudip Bandyopadhyay, by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the Rose Valley scam.

And, on Saturday, Jay Prakash Majumdar, state Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president, was arrested here on a charge of cheating job seekers. 

However, Banerjee and Jaitley could still share the dais on Friday, for the sake of business.