Working on the NDA government’s top agenda to push through the long pending goods and services tax, the two new Ministers of State for Finance — Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Arjun Ram Meghwal — expressed the hope that the Constitution Amendment for the tax would be passed in the monsoon session of Parliament.
“The entire world is looking at how India will act. I feel GST will certainly be passed by Parliament in the monsoon session,” said Gangwar, who took charge as MoS for Finance on Wednesday.
Commenting on the Congress Party’s stance on GST, Gangwar, who was earlier the MoS (Independent Charge) for Textiles, said, “No party opposes GST outside Parliament. All parties are for GST, but they put some hurdle or the other. I think all parties will support it in the monsoon session.”
The monsoon session of Parliament will start on July 18 and the NDA government is planning to reach out to the Congress before that to reach a consensus.
On the Congress demand to cap the rates for GST in the Constitution, Meghwal, who is the MoS for Finance and Corporate Affairs, stressed that it has not been done anywhere in the world.
“We are hopeful that the GST Bill will be passed in the monsoon session,” he said, adding that the BJP is constantly in touch with the Congress on the issue.
Meghwal, also underlined key priorities for the government and said the benefit of economic development must reach the last mile. “The government will strive to ensure benefits of PMJDY, Mudra and other social security schemes reach the common man,” he said.
Gangwar and Meghwal took over from Jayant Sinha, who was earlier MoS in the Finance Ministry and is now the junior minister for civil aviation.
Both the ministers met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley before assuming charge. They then took over in the presence of Jaitley and senior Ministry officials, including Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das.
While the reasons for Sinha’s perceived “demotion” to the Ministry of Civil Aviation are not completely clear, sources indicated that he was considered to have spoken out of turn many times and was “high profile” in the media.
As MoS for Finance, Sinha was working on a number of important issues, including the challenges in the banking sector.