Initiating a debate on the bills, Deputy Leader of Congress Anand Sharma said, "It is important that as you go for implementation, both the Centre and the state governments should create an institutional mechanism which protects or insulates the taxpayers from harassment."
He said the government should not create multiple windows of tax harassment, search, seizure and arrests which is "already happening".
Sharma urged Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the GST Council to keep most of the goods, which are used by the common man, at the tax rate of 5 per cent.
He said the government should "resist the temptation" to bring maximum goods and services under the rate of 18 per cent, cautioning that such a move will be inflationary.
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"Are we actually going to create an efficient tax structure, reduce the burden of compliance, ensuring that the final GST rate will not be too high? I have my doubts. It is because multiple GST rates have been introduced," he said.
He also raised concerns about the government's preparedness to implement the GST in the midst of the financial year, saying there is hardly any time left now as the Government is keen to roll out the indirect tax reform from July 1.
He also asked whether the government will subsume all the multiple cesses that have been imposed in the past into the GST, terming these as an "additional tax burden".
He said there is no safeguard clause and no proposal on how the government will address inflation arising out of the implementation of the GST.
If the government keeps the Service Tax at the model GST rate of 18 per cent, it will translate into a 3.5 per cent increase, which will be "hugely inflationary", he said.
Sharma said the GST negates the 'ease of doing business' environment as businesses will need to acquire registration in every state they wish to operate in.
He said the harsh provisions related to the recovery of tax should not be implemented during the transition phase of the GST.
Sharma, while terming the GST as a "historic change"
which will bring about a paradigm shift, targeted the BJP in a veiled manner, saying its passage was delayed during the last seven years due to "partisan" stand that led to a big loss.
He said the indirect tax reform will help in increasing the GDP in the long run and "surely benefit" the economy.
However, the Congress leader said the list of exclusions is "worrisome", referring to petroleum products, diesel, petrol, aviation turbine fuel, real estate and alcohol which have been kept out of the GST.
Derek O'Brien of Trinamool Congress said, the concept of GST was introduced by the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000 in the Parliament "but people (then) were more familiar with KBC (Kaun Bangega Crorepati)."
He said the concept has "evolved over the last 17 years and is something we can be proud of."
About the politics over last two decades on the tax reform, he said, "In GST, 'G' stands for 'Go'. When in the government, go for it and when in opposition go slow over it. Be it the JDU, SP, BSP, AIADMK or NCP, everybody has done the same thing."
Attacking the BJP, he said, "when the party gives lecture on being a responsible opposition, it is not digestible."
Citing an instance, he said Parliament was disrupted for 22 days over 2G scam and 423 working hours were lost.
He also talked about various views on whether or not the recommendations made by GST Council should come to Parliament "as some say that in that case you are taking away federal structure because GST Council is a council of states".
Naresh Agrawal (SP) asked the government to ensure that the decision on the states' claims or issues are not delayed in the GST Council.
A V Singh Deo (BJD) said the Rajya Sabha has become
recommendatory, which is against its pride.
He said various tax slabs, exemptions and cess defeat the very purpose of GST, which is 'one nation, one tax'.
Deo said there is a fear amongst the people about the categories in which goods will fall. He also said that GST could lead to red-tapism in the system.
The compliance cost will reduce for small and medium businesses, leading to ease of doing business, he said, adding that the passage of this GST bill would result in expansion of tax base.
He called GST as vital for transforming the indirect tax collection system.
Chandrasekhar supported the passage of the four bills, although he said that this is not a perfect GST and suggested merger of CGST and SGST.
He also demanded that there should be minimum number of goods in 28 per cent tax slabs.
He said the GST regime would also lead to inflation and demanded that taxes should not be imposed on certain items like potable drinking water.
Digvijay Singh (Congress) said the Congress Party has always been supporting the GST Bill and it was BJP which was opposing it. He said the BJP party has the habit of making U-turns.
"The strongest opposition that anybody has shown to the GST was Narendra Modi ji. Till 2014, he was opposing the GST and saying that if he became the Prime Minister, he would not implement it."
Stating that GST was mentioned in the Budget of 2006-07, Singh said: "If the GST Bill had been passed then, 12-13 lakh crore income would have come to the government".
The Congress leader expressed concern over the fate of finances of urban local bodies under the GST regime and said there would be mismanagement in cities if States delay in releasing fund.
Singh also criticised that even small traders having a daily sales of Rs 5000-6000 will come under the GST and they will have to file 36 returns in a year compared to only 4 returns at present. These traders would have to keep someone at a salary of Rs 5000-10000 per month to fill these forms.
He said the cost of compliance would increase under GST for traders and the proposed law would benefit tax authorities and Chartered Accountants.
Singh also asked the government why CAG has been kept out of the bill. He said in the original Bill, CAG had the power to do audit.
Contending that multiple rates have made GST complicated, Singh asked the government to bring "single tax structure without exemption".
The Congress leader said the GST could bring a situation of "economic chaos" and small businessmen would be affected. He even warned that BJP would lose its support among the traders community.
BJP member Mahesh Poddar said, "GST is a big achievement and we will succeed with the support of technology."
Taking a dig at Congress, Poddar said, "though it could not do it, we did it."
However he hastened to add that GST is the nation's plan now.
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Jairam Ramesh (Congress) said his party will support the GST bills but will raise some questions.
Taking a dig at the government, he said, "As of now, there is liberty to speak but who knows that Article 110 of the Constitution may be amended to bar raising of questions even."
He said the idea of GST first came when former Prime Minister V P Singh was the Finance Minister in 1986 and the first step to reform was introduction of MODVAT.
"Successive Prime Ministers deserve as much credit as the present Prime Minister," Ramesh said, adding "let's not make it out as if the current Prime Minister came and suddenly everything worked to the country's advantage."
Stating that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley deserves "one cheer" for what he has accomplished, Ramesh said he will not give two or three cheers to Jaitley because the current FM has two advantages which his predecessors did not have.
"What are these two advantages. Mr Jaitley did not have a cussed obstructionist standing committee to deal with which took 28 months to submit its report. And Mr Jaitley did not have a single-minded obstuctionist Chief Minister with whom Mr Chidamabaram and Mr Pranab Mukherjee unfortunately had to deal with".
Bhupendra Yadav (BJP) objected to the word "obstructionist", saying it is unparliamentary and should be removed from the proceedings.
The Chair said if the word is unparliamentary, it will be removed.
Ramesh then said, "he was surely obstructionist but since you are objecting (to the usage of the word), you may treat it as uncooperative."
The Congress leader said the GST Bill is being passed in a certain economic background.
He said although the country is growing at 7 per cent, the investment is sluggish, bank credit is not increasing and electricity consumption is at 14 year low.
"This is the great paradox of the Indian economic situation," he said.
Ramesh said there is a need to boost the investor sentiment in the country and termed the GST Bill as a step in that direction.
He said "In current political economy, one tax is impossible and one tax is undesirable."
Stating that there are six tax slabs and four major exemptions, the Congress leader said the GST bill is "imperfect" but it is a very significant step forward.
"This is a moment for collective celebration and not for any one individual to say that I came, I did and I conquered," Ramesh said.
Ramesh said that GDP cannot increase by 1.5-2 per cent
with this GST bill.
The Congress leader asked whether one month, June, is adequate for transition to take place in the new regime as certain rules are to be passed in the month of May.
He said this in the context of the government's intent to roll out the new indirect tax regime from July 1.
Ramesh also expressed concern that service industry like banking and insurance, would have to register itself in all 29 states under GST.
He also sought clarity on what would happen to finances of the local bodies.
Ramesh also said that laws of anti-profiteering under clause 171 have caused a lot of worry.
"What you are telling the companies, if taxes fall, your prices shall fall," he said, adding that practically it is "one more point of harassment".
"I can't imagine that a modern, open-minded and liberal finance minister would have introduced a clause that says if tax rate falls, you shall reduce your price," he said, adding that its a "deeply troublesome clause".
On compensation, Ramesh said whether the cess of Rs 400 a tonne on coal proposed under the GST is over and above the Rs 400 tonne already in place created for national clean energy fund.
The Congress leader suggested that an independent professional body as a secretariat of GST council with an arm length relation with Centre and States.
Ramesh said there are lot of pitfall, uncertainties and hardwork still required in implementing the GST law and the same should be done in co-operative atmosphere.