Congress to be responsible for delay in GST: Arun Jaitley

New Delhi, Jul 30: Congress party will be "squarely responsible" for delay in implementation of GST, which the government has proposed to roll out from April next year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

Congress is opposing its own Bill which was originally tabled by the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukkherjee and later piloted by P Chidambaram, he said.

"If the GST Bill gets delayed in this session and the legislation gets delayed, the responsibility will be squarely of the Congress Party. India will suffer because it has a party which is refusing to advise itself adequately," he told Times Now.

The Constitution Amendment Bill for Goods and Service Tax (GST), which will replace all indirect taxes like excise and sales tax on all products, except alcohol, has already been passed by the Lok Sabha and is pending passage in the Upper House where the ruling NDA does not have majority.

On the dissent note by the Congress on the report of the Rajya Sabha panel on GST, Jaitley said: "On six out of seven points, the dissent is against Mr Chidambaram's Bill therefore the Congress has filed dissent note against the Bill that Mr Pranab Mukherjee introduced in the Parliament and which Mr Chidambaram was trying to pilot.

Therefore, the party has decided the disruptionist attitude is the only one it knows."

Yesterday, the Cabinet approved amendments to the GST bill to compensate states for revenue loss for five years on introduction of the uniform nationwide indirect tax regime, as has been suggested by Rajya Sabha Select Committee.

Government plans to roll out GST from April 1, 2016, a very tight schedule considering the fact that the Bill has to be approved by Rajya Sabha and half of the 30 states.

PTI