New Delhi: The government has not done any trade-off with parties like the Trinamool Congress and AIADMK on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill but will push for Rajya Sabha voting on the bill if the Congress’ opposition persisted, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday.
“I will, till the last day, continue to persuade the Congress to see reason so that they don’t go back on the bill they themselves introduced. However, if the Congress persists with its opposition, ultimately a vote in the Rajya Sabha can only decide… what other options do we have?” Jaitley told news channel Times Now in an interview.
On whether the government is keen to enlist the support of regional parties to isolate the Congress on the matter, he said: “My intention is not to isolate the Congress. The GST Bill is not a BJP bill. It was mooted by the Congress; the GST will help the country.”
Denying any trade-off between the government and regional parties like the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool and Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK, he said the “GST is not a partisan issue”.
“There is no political trade-off. The understanding is if any state loses revenue the first five years the Centre will make it up,” Jaitley said.
Earlier, the minister said that virtually almost all states supported the bill.
The Lok Sabha cleared the GST Bill in May 2015 but it is stuck in the Rajya Sabha, where the government does not have adequate numbers to see it through.
Jaitley said once the GST Bill is passed, all consuming states will benefit.
“The Left government in Kerala, Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal or the JD-U government in Bihar and even Biju Janata Dal government in Odisha — all are going to benefit.”
On the other hand, he said, producing states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu wanted to be compensated and thus have been offered a package.
To a question, he asserted that despite the GST discussions, both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool remain “opponents of each other”.
On the escalating prices of pulses and vegetables, the minister said the price situation ought to be analysed in its proper context.
Attacking the previous Congress-led Manmohan Singh government, he said: “You lived under a UPA government where they left with 11 per cent inflation rate. On the contrary, the NDA government has consistently maintained inflation at four or four and half per cent.”
“Prices of most commodities have been controlled. There are seasonal fluctuations with vegetables,” he said, terming the high prices of tomatoes and low prices of onions a “demand-supply issue” which the market will take care of when additional produce arrives.
However, he admitted to “serious challenge” from pulses.
“There is a shortfall of five million tonnes of pulses with shortages in the last two years globally as well. But the government is trying to get more pulses from various countries like Myanmar and Mozambique wherever available,” he said.
“The moment the supply increases, the prices fall automatically. Last year, when we took action against hoarding, it took just two weeks to bring down the price by Rs 50,” Jaitley said.
About controversial land deals by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra, the minister said that there was no “holy cow” for the government and the investigation agencies were doing their work in the case.
On the Ishrat Jahan case, he said that it was an operation by the intelligence agencies in coordination with the state police, and the Home Ministry was investigating the missing papers episode and will soon come out with the facts.
Jaitley also said that the government will soon out with comprehensive guidelines for the Central Board of Film Certification to avoid unnecessary controversy over films.
–IANS