Rajya Sabha to pass some Bills, but not GST

The Rajya Sabha is likely to consider some legislations and issues in the last three days of the winter session. An all-party meeting, convened by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, however, decided not to take up the Goods and Services Tax Bill in this session. The Opposition leaders participated in the meeting turned down an appeal from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the passage of the Bill in this session.

Non controversial Bills such as the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, the Appropriation Bills, the Anti Hijacking Bill, the Atomic Energy Amendment Bill, the Commercial Courts Ordinance Bill and the Arbitration and Conciliation Amendment Bill will be taken up by elders for consideration and passage. Also, a Substantive Motion on the recent decisions of Arunachal Pradesh Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, a discussion on the intolerant incidents in the country and a debate on the rising prices are likely to take place in the Upper House. Both the government and the Opposition said the meeting tried to evolve a general consensus on certain Bills.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said nothing new was discussed at the meeting and said his party had offered support for passing the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill in this session of Parliament. He added that there was no discussion on GST. “The discussion was on some bills on which there is a general consensus. Everybody is aware that there is no consensus on GST. Not only Congress has some reservations but other parties also,” Azad added.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said a number of parties expressed concern in the meeting over Parliament not functioning. “All of them decided that the House should function. It has been decided to pass the pending government bills even by sitting late,” he said and added that the Congress is not ready for the passage of the GST Bill. He said Jaitley made an appeal to the opposition parties to pass the Bill. “But, I don’t think the main opposition party has an agreement on this,” he added.

CPI(M) Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha KN Balagopal said the meeting was long due. “The Centre could have convened such a meeting to end the impasse earlier. On the other hand, even the Finance Minister tried to provoke the Opposition by unnecessarily taking up a non-issue against Congress member Kumari Selja. The BJP and Congress were hand-in-glove in disrupting the House,” Balagopal added.

Both the Houses witnessed repeated adjournments on Friday too. In Rajya Sabha, no major business took place after the Opposition stormed to the well over the developments in Arunachal Pradesh. The MPs demanded the Centre to recall the State Governor. In Lok Sabha, Congress members walked out over the issue.