Car-sensus on GST?

The Centre and states finally managed to break the political logjam on Goods and Services Tax and agree on some important areas at their meeting in Bhubaneswar last week. Emerging from the three-hour-long meeting, Sushil Modi, who heads the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, announced that a broad consensus had been reached. But perhaps the deal was brokered a day before in Puri where the committee and Central government representatives had gone for a dinner. Although some officials held hectic parleys over the issue after dinner, the Finance Minister’s Advisor Parthasarathi Shome joined Modi in his car on the way back to Bhubaneswar. Their discussions during the journey may have helped arrive at a consensus on a contentious issue.