Cong ardent supporter of GST: Surjewala

Congress today said, despite just four days remaining for the Parliament session to begin, government has not approached the opposition for resolving issues concerning the crucial Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill.
The party claimed the real reason for the non-passage of the key reform measure was due to its being "red flagged" by the RSS. It, however, did not elaborate.
Party's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala replied in the negative when asked by reporters whether the government has taken any initiative to resolve the deadlock over the bill which is stuck in the Rajya Sabha.
The GST bill, which seeks to replace a slew of central and state levies with a uniform rate, was passed by Lok Sabha in May and is pending ratification by Rajya Sabha, where the ruling NDA does not have a majority.

Surjewala dismissed suggestions that the ruling dispensation has any magic formula to manufacture numbers in the Upper House.
Targeting Mamata Banerjee's TMC, he said parties like it have helped the government "surreptitiously" in the past on several bills.

Insisting that the Congress is "ardent supporter" of the GST measure, he said the party wanted the government to concede to its "reasonable" demands in the "interest of the country".
Seeking to drive home the "reasonable demands," Surjewala
Said the 18 per cent cap sought by the Congress was in the interest of the common man.
He alleged that the government might be blaming the opposition, especially Congress over the non-passage of the bill, but the fact is "RSS has red flagged GST".

He also attacked Delhi government, saying Arvind Kejriwal has "raised entertainment tax to 40 per cent" forcing Delhiites to go to Noida or Gurgaon to watch movies.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier said he would be discussing the issue with the Congress in hope of getting the bill passed in the session, which begins on April 25.