Congress to raise objections on some GST proposals

New Delhi: A meeting of Congress Lok Sabha MPs has decided to raise certain concerns about the enabling legislations of GST — without opposing the overall mega tax reform — that will come up for discussion and passage in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The enabling bills, once passed by the NDA-dominated Lok Sabha, is slated to be brought to Rajya Sabha as money bills to limit the Opposition’s role to block it in the Upper House.

The Tuesday meeting in New Delhi, presided over by Rahul Gandhi, felt that Congress MPs must move amendments in the Lok Sabha to record the party’s concerns about some proposals in the legislations. These amendments include registering Congress’ reservation about breaking the GST structure into four to five slabs of taxes, demanding, instead, “one-nation-one-(GST) tax” across the board, and opposing “the total tax burden under GST crossing 40%,” according to some members who attended the meeting.


At the same time, Gandhi and his colleagues felt that the raising specific reservations about the GST enabling bills should not amount to giving an impression that it was opposed to the tax reforms and that the party must underline during the House debate that it was the Congress-led UPA regime that conceived the idea of GST.