Arun Jaitley Pitches for Early Passage of GST Bill

Pitching for early passage of the GST Bill in the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said efforts to create hurdle will amount to damaging the country.

The Constitution Amendment Bill to roll out Goods and Services Tax is stuck in the Rajya Sabha due to stiff opposition by the Congress party and might be delayed further because of the tough stance taken by the main opposition party over the National Herald case issue.

"It's extremely important and all parties must come together. Now that revenue neutral rate of 15 per cent has been announced which was not even discussed...people were discussing 22, 24 per cent.

"India desperately needs the GST, businesses and trade need GST and anybody tries to create hurdle in the passing of GST will be doing the great damage to the country," he said in an interview to Times Now.

The 15 per cent Revenue Neutral Rate has been suggested by a committee headed by Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian last week.

Referring to the Congress demand for inclusion of GST rate in the Bill, Jaitley said the Bill was initiated by the Congress itself and it should help in passage in the interest of the country.

"If the Congress party intends to pass the GST and help in passing the GST which in all fairness I must concede was an initiative started by the Congress party itself, it will be doing fair to its own programme, it will be doing fair to the country," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier held meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to break the ice on the GST logjam and other pending work in Parliament.