Congress backs GST but wants Bill to be sent to Standing Committee

Congress' Veerappa Moily said his party supports GST but not the bill, which needs wider consultation

Congress today supported Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Lok Sabha but opposed some of the provisions of the bill introduced by the BJP government, demanding that it be sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee, which was supported by parties like AIADMK and BJD.

TMC said it was "broadly supporting" the bill while AIADMK said it was against it as Tamil Nadu ruled by it would lose over Rs 10,000 crore due to the new tax structure.

Veerappa Moily (Cong), while initiating a debate on the bill after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley "beseeched" the opposition to help in its passage, said GST was revolutionary but he opposed some of its measures.

Jaitley rose to congratulate Moily over his support to GST. However, the Congress leader later made a strong plea to the government that it send the legislation to the Standing Committee for wider consultation.

He said over 140 countries have GST measures and Indian could have "borrowed" and "learnt" from them to come out with a law which would help it to be "in the frontline of developed countries".

Attacking the government for changes made in an earlier version of the bill brought by the UPA, Moily said the NDA dispensation should inform the opposition if it had "decided" not to send bills to Standing Committees so that they do not "waste the time of Parliament".

He said the government would not be doing any charity by agreeing to demand for sending it to the Standing Committee.