NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government has given up plans to reconvene a session of parliament to secure approval of a common goods and services tax (GST) because of political obstruction, the finance minister said on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said a cabinet committee had recommended to President Pranab Mukherjee that he prorogue the monsoon session of parliament that had been kept alive since last month to allow for a consensus on the vital tax reform measure.
But the main opposition Congress party, which itself had pushed the GST bill when it was in government, continued to play politics, Jaitley said, throwing into doubt the government's plans to implement the new tax by April 1, 2016.
"Your guess is as good as mine," he told a news conference.
(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh and Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Malini Menon)
