BJP trains guns on Congress, Jaitley rejects its terms on GST

Top BJP ministers and leaders today fanned out to states and attacked the Congress for the washout of the monsoon session of Parliament where the GST bill was stalled even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley dismissed as an "afterthought" the conditions set by Congress for supporting the measure.
"All these three pre-conditions are an afterthought," he told a press conference when he was asked about the conditions set by the Congress yesterday for breaking the logjam over the Constitution amendment that will bring in a uniform Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the country.
Former finance minister P Chidambaram had yesterday said if the government addresses three of its fundamental concerns-- maximum GST rate should not cross 18 per cent, no additional one per cent tax and setting up of a grievance redress mechanism--then the Congress could consider supporting its passage.

Following up on the NDA decision yesterday, the BJP bigwigs targeted Congress President and Vice President Rahul Gandhi for the paralysis of Parliament and said first family of the party has not reconciled to being out of power.
Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Chennai she was "very optimistic" of the passage of the GST while Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said it will be "definitely" passed because government enjoyed a majority in Rajya Sabha.
However, in Ahmedabad Power Minister Piyush Goyal felt there were "less possibilities" of the bill being passed by April, 2016 but government would work out alternative ways to ensure people get its benefits.

In Delhi, Jaitley said, "All these three decisions (on issues raked up by Chidambaram) are unanimous decisions of all the states to which the congress party states are privy. So its clear that these three pre conditions are an after thought.
"Well I don't think it is part of prudent politics for any party to put pre-conditions, particularly on a matter which involves fiscal relationship between the centre and the states," he said.
Jaitley said two conditions are contrary to what was his own stand when Chidambaram was finance minister. The third condition of up to one percent one per cent additional tax was a compromise between the centre and the states.