GST bill to be discussed in RS today, all eyes on Oppn parties

India's biggest tax reform - the Goods and Services tax Constitutional Amendment bill - will be taken up for discussion in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The government is leaving no stone unturned to seek a consensus and says it will address all concerns of states on GST. A 5-hour discussion has been slotted on the long-stalled GST bill in the upper house.

Under the modified provisions of GST Constitutional Amendment Bill, GST Council will be required to establish a mechanism for adjudication of disputes, which could arise between the Centre and states or among states themselves.

The 2014 bill authorised GST Council to decide upon the modalities for resolution of disputes.

With these official amendments, the government has partially met the demands of the Congress party which has been blocking the bill in the Rajya Sabha. One of the three demands of the Congress was to do away with the 1 percent additional manufacturing tax.

On the demand for a Supreme Court judge-headed panel for resolving GST disputes, the official amendments say that the GST Council will establish a mechanism for solving disputes.

With regard to the demand for putting a GST rate cap in the Constitution, the government has not mentioned anything in the official amendments.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, at a meeting with his state counterparts last week, promised to keep the incidence of tax low while safeguarding the revenue of the states.

Jaitley has been meeting leaders of Congress and other parties, including SP, BJD, TMC and RJD, to build a consensus on the passage of the long pending indirect tax reform bill in the Rajya Sabha. It was approved by the Lok Sabha in May 2015.