Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today pitched for a political consensus to pass the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for the sake of rationalising petroleum prices and controlling inflation.
Reminding the leadership of the main Opposition, the Bharatiya Janata party, that they had also favoured the introduction of GST, Mukherjee said in the Lok Sabha: “You have said central sales taxes should be abolished and GST should be 12-14 per cent. Let us try to achieve that. The entire spectrum of the service taxes, excise duties and value-added tax will be brought under the Constitutional mechanism where the scope of individual discretionary decisions could be regulated.”
Seeking a political consensus to pass the Constitutional amendment Bill, Mukherjee said GST would be a “win-win game”. He also warned the House that “time is running out”. “If we want to do the constitutional amendment, the Bill is to be introduced in this session,” he said.
“Everyone will have to support if we want to have this major tax reform that can address the problems of the fluctuating price at least domestically. We cannot deal with international prices,” Mukherjee added.
In his reply to the Lok Sabha on the debate on price rise, Mukherjee maintained there was no other option but to raise the prices of petroleum products.
