Govt must sort out differences over GST: Rahul Gandhi

Hints Congress may not back bill if maximum 28% tax rate under new regime and dispute resolution mechanism aren't addressed

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today hinted that the main opposition party may not back the GST (goods and services tax) bill in the winter session of the Parliament unless couple of fundamental differences it has with the government on the issue are resolved.

"We have two or three fundamental differences with them (government). There is difference over maximum 28 per cent tax rate proposed under the new tax regime and also the dispute resolution mechanism", Gandhi, who was on a two day visit to the state, said in an interaction with senior media persons here.

He flayed the government for hurrying through GST implementation without doing the necessary ground work. "At least two years of preparation are required for implementation of GST. All the orders and structures should be put in place. None of it has been done", he said.

"The discussion on GST is on, but passing the bill and implementing it are completely different things. Similarly, a study on complication of adopting the new tax system should be done", he remarked.

He refuted allegations about the Congress not cooperating on passing of the GST bill, saying there is no attempt by the government to create a consensus on the issue. "The leadership of BJP does not believe in conversation, does not try to create consensus. They think, what they say should happen. This is not the way democracy works. We have a view on GST, we also had a view on the land bill, that view is important to us".

He warned such attitude of the ruling NDA may cost it dear as was seen in the case of the land bill, in which the government made a U-turn after coming under fire from the Opposition. "If they come to us and discuss and respect the 20 per cent of the voice of people (which is the vote percentage the party got in the last general election), then things would move".

Gandhi accused Prime Minister, Narendra Modi of bluffing the people on various issues starting from the Naga accord to MNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) and said, "Either he (Modi) is not informed or not interested or he does not understand what he says. He seems to be far removed from the reality".

Stating that a perception is gradually percolating down that "this is a suited-booted Sarkar", Gandhi said, "The Congress will continue to champion the cause of poor, dalits, tribals, labours and farmers both inside and outside the Parliament even as the NDA government is busy protecting the interest of few corporate houses".

He attributed the Congress' rout in the last general election to "few mistakes it made while in the government for ten years" and also the polarisation of votes in north India by BJP and the Sangh Parivar. Besides, the global economic situation, particularly rising crude oil prices contributed its bit to the defeat. "If the oil prices start rising again now, things would be worse", he added.

On Bihar election, he refused to speculate about the performance of the Congress and said, "the party has entered into a formidable alliance".

On the prospect of him taking over the reins of the party or the government in future, he said, "it does not matter whether I work as no 1 or 2 in the party. I am mobilising the party now, giving it strength and energy", and then self-complemented with the statement, "leading the attack on the government over the land bill in the Parliament and succeeding was no small achievement".

---EOM---