GST battle half won; implementation will be a worry: MINT

The government is looking to pass over 30 bills in the 23 day-monsoon session of Parliament beginning today. Critical among these are the the goods and service tax (GST) Bill and Land Acquisition Bill. But frequent adjournments and no major bills getting passed could be the trend this week, says Anil Padmanabhan, Deputy Managing Editor, MINT.Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Padmanabhan says with expectations running low, chances of this session being productive, are higher. "I suspect one big thing that you can expect movement is on goods and services tax (GST) and the rest of it depends on how well the Congress conducts itself in organising the opposition because in a way this is more a test for Congress because the first time the BJP is going to walk into a session of Parliament where they are going to be on the defensive," he says.Calling GST the ‘big thing’, Padmanabhan says the select GST committee signing off on the amendments may possibly manage to get minimum support from the Rajya Sabha, but the battle is still half won. He says implementation of the Bill, compensation levels and increase in the rate will remain thorny issues.He says Bihar election is a litmus test for BJP as a victory will help it regain political momentum lost after the defeat in Delhi.Below is the edited transcript of Anil Padmanabhan’s interview with Latha Venkatesh and Reema Tendulkar on CNBC-TV18.Latha: Is it just going to be a washout session, should we expect any constructive work at all? A: The good news is that expectations are very low because of the kind of battle lines that have been drawn even before the session started. So, in that sense since expectations are low, deliverables will presumably be high compared to the expectations. So I suspect one big thing that you can expect movement is on goods and services tax (GST) and the rest of it depends on how well the Congress conducts itself in organising the opposition because in a way this is more a test for Congress because the first time the BJP is going to walk into a session of Parliament where they are going to be on the defensive. So, it is very interesting face-off. So, we will have to wait and see if the Congress can martial the opposition behind it. The kind of double speak we are hearing from some of the opposition members, it doesn’t look like it at this point but too early to say. Today as you know Lok Sabha has been adjourned without business but Rajya Sabha, the fight is on. So, we will have to wait and see.