Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury on Monday said the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill has incorporated few important elements which require legislative scrutiny.
“This is a constitutional amendment and it is not as if we do not want to cooperate. The draft legislation should be referred to a Select Committee since there were several new components, which have not been put through legislative scrutiny. But if the (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi government is not ready to pay heed to this, all of us will have to suffer,” Chowdhury told ANI here.
The Congress, along with the other Left Parties, has been demanding that the GST Bill be referred to the Standing Committee. The Congress, which is the largest party in the Rajya Sabha, wants a parliamentary committee to scrutinize the amendments made in the GST Bill by the BJP.
The BJP-led government at the Centre is set to bring the GST Bill before the Rajya Sabha today.
The bill was last week passed by the Lok Sabha with a two-third majority of the members present and voting as required for a constitutional amendment. In the Lok Sabha, where NDA has the numbers, the Congress walked out during voting on the bill.
If approved by the Rajya Sabha, the legislation has to be ratified by at least half the number of 29 Indian states before the President can put his seal of approval for it to take effect.
The main purpose of the GST Bill is a unified regime that will subsume most indirect taxes levied by the Centre and state governments such as excise duty, service tax, value added tax, sales tax and octroi to facilitate a common market across the country. (ANI)