Modi govt may sweat to push GST law despite poll success: CLSA

Moneycontrol BureauUnless either the Congress, or the AIADMK or the Left parties decide to help the government, the constitutional amendment bill enabling GST cannot pass, says brokerage house CLSA.Market is expecting the government to get aggressive on pushing through reforms after a good showing in the recent assembly polls.Even after the elections to Rajya Sabha ending in July ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, parties explicitly opposed to the Goods and Service Tax (GST) enabling bill still add up to more than one-third of the house strength, says CLSA."If this bill does not pass in the next session, GST implementation will get pushed out to April 2018 or later-- too close to the next general election for the BJP's comfort," says the CLSA note.In an interview to Mint newspaper, Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance said the government was confident of getting GST passed in the first week of the monsoon session."We are very hopeful that the bill will get two-thirds majoritybecause we have the support of virtually every party now (except Congress)," Sinha told Mint.But CLSA feels the government will not find it easy pushing through legislative reforms in the foreseeable future."We reiterate that even after the next biennial RS elections in 2018, the ruling coalition will hold only 34 percent of the RS seats and hence legislative progress will continue to be slow," says the CLSA note.