Congress Vice President, Rahul Gandhi said GST bill was "very important" but the government's approach has to be one of reaching out to the opposition.
On the eve of winter session of Parliament, Rahul Gandhi today said Congress "strongly" believed in the Goods and Services Tax (GST), but the government should reach out to the opposition on certain issues, including the cap on rate.
The Congress vice president outlined the party's stand on the contentious GST Bill even as he made an all-round attack on the Narendra Modi government calling it "much worse" than "suit-boot-ki-sarkar."
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is keen to push key reforms legislations like the stalled GST bill in the winter session.
When asked by students about GST, which is yet to be ratified by Parliament, Mr Gandhi said, "we strongly believe in GST."
He said it was Congress which brought the Bill in Parliament, but he noted, the BJP had opposed it and blocked it for three years with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, then in the Opposition, even justifying blocking Parliament as a strategy.
Mr Gandhi said there were three differences between BJP and Congress on GST. They related to cap on tax to be charged, dispute resolution and one per cent tax on inter-state sales (doing away with it).
The Congress leader said GST and other bills were "very important" but the government's approach has to be one of reaching out to the opposition.
He said government had to accept the fact that Congress "sits in Parliament", "Congress has a view" and "Congress has 20 per cent hope" (referring to the people's mandate).
Mr Gandhi said that PM Modi believes the country could be run from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and that he alone could transform the country. "One man decides every single decision... one man can't have all the answers...," he said, adding dialogue was very important.
Targetting PM Modi's style of functioning, Mr Gandhi said there were very few people with decision making powers at the Centre. He attacked the Narendra Modi led government for not having "conversation" with the Opposition, he said the Prime Minister had not even once picked up phone and spoken to any Congress leader, which his predecessor Manmohan Singh used to do.