Difficult to accept Congress demand on GST cap: Jaitley

March 17, 2016 19:17

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that it would be difficult to accept Congress' demand to cap the goods and services tax rate in a Constitution amendment bill pending in Rajya Sabha even as he remains hopeful of passage of the key bill.

He also said that there is scope to improve growth rate with reforms.

"Today, every state government, including all Congress ones, is in favour of goods and services tax. You have every political party in Parliament which has said they will vote in favour," he said at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi.

"In the Lok Sabha, the Congress walked out, every other party voted in favour. The Congress party has now made a statement that it has only one issue about the Constitutional cap which is a little difficult because our tariff is not decided through Constitution amendment," he said.

The Congress, the original author of the tax reform, has called the Bill pending in Rajya Sabha as "flawed" and wants the government to cap the GST rate at 18 per cent.

The legislation has already been approved by the Lok Sabha but is pending in Upper House, where the ruling the NDA does not have a majority. After it is approved by the Rajya Sabha, the legislation needs to be approved by half of the 29 states so as to roll out GST possibly by October 1.

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