Opposition not taken on board on GST bill: CPI(M)

CPI(M) today accused the NDA government of not taking the Opposition on board on the Goods and Service Tax (GST) bill and said that it would oppose the legislation in Rajya Sabha.
"The government should have called an all-party meeting on GST to take the Opposition on board. It is the system followed in parliamentary democracy," CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters here.
Referring to the Constitutional Amendment for the Land Boundary Agreement, Yechury said, "It was passed unanimously. But unfortunately on GST, the government is trying to bulldoze the parliamentary system and we will raise our concerns.
"It (GST bill) cannot go without Parliament's scrutiny. It cannot be made into a law without going through the parliamentary procedure," he added.

Yechury said the government has not referred any major bill to the Parliament's Standing Committee as required to fine tune the legislation. "It is bad for parliamentary democracy as it has never happened before," he said.
The CPI(M) leader further said that several non-money bills have been clubbed in the Finance Bill, which the party was opposed to. "Bills on blackmoney, FEMA and RBI which are not money bills have been clubbed in it," he said.
The GST Bill, a key reforms measure seeking to create a national market, was approved by Lok Sabha yesterday.