Finance minister Arun Jaitley faces one of his biggest challenges this week as the Lok Sabha decides the fate of the constitutional amendment bill on the Goods and Services Tax. The entire Opposition and some BJP allies had opposed the bill’s introduction, and many of them, excluding the allies, walked out, making the fate of the bill a fait accompli. Mr Jaitley is said to be in hectic parleys to get the Congress and others to agree to a discussion as they keep insisting that the bill be sent to the standing committee. This is just political cussedness as the bill, that was first talked about in 2003 during the first BJP-led NDA government, has already been with the standing committee for two and a half years.
The Congress seems to be paying the BJP back in the same coin as it were BJP-led states that had scuttled agreement on GST even though it was discussed threadbare by the empowered committee of state finance ministers during the Manmohan Singh government. It was alleged then the BJP was deliberately opposing the bill as it did not want the Congress to take credit for it. It is a sad commentary that such a major reform that could increase GDP by 2 per cent, facilitate the ease of doing business and give the states financial strength is being sacrificed at the altar of tit-for-tat. Mr Jaitley will need enormous give-and-take and generosity to get the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress to transcend its hurt pride.
