New Delhi: In an apparent attack on the Congress party over GST Bill stalemate, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said that 'there are forces which are trying to halt the economic growth' of India.
Speaking at the 88th Annual General Meeting of FICCI here, the Minister said, "A delayed GST is better than a flawed one. Hope they (Congress) give up rigidity of constitutionally prescribed tariffs."
"No doubt in my mind that attempt to delay (GST) is entirely for collateral reason. If I couldn't do it, why someone else," he added.
The government and the opposition, particularly Congress, are engaged in a cat and mouse game over GST Bill for quite some time.
The GST Bill, which was cleared by the Lok Sabha earlier this year, is pending in Rajya Sabha. The Congress party has made it clear that it will not compromise on its 3 demands including dropping the proposed 1 per cent additional levy to compensate manufacturing states.
Maintaining that the future of Indian economy will always depend on quality of politics, he said, "Hard reality of India is that it is politics that determines policy. In 2015, one of the greatest strength in India is that it has become exceedingly inspirational enough that even one when lot of things are happening, a section of people are still impatient, why does it happen faster?"
"India is still not large enough economy to drive the world economy. We can shoulder a part of global growth, but it is a harsh reality that the world has slowed down," he said.
He said that India has witness two consecutive less than normal monsoon and it has affected the purchasing power in rural areas.
The GST aims to simplify the current indirect tax regime by bringing all central and state levies under one single head having uniform tax rate across goods and services.
Major reform bills in last 3 days of Winter Session
Jaitley further said that the government intends to bring important legislation on structural reforms in the remaining three day left of Parliament's Winter Session.
"The next three days are crucial with very important pieces of legislation coming up before parliament," he said.
"We are bringing in the bill for creating fast-track arbitration in the country, including single-member tribunals," he added.
The Finance Minister said another proposed legislation would be bringing in a new Bankruptcy Law for companies.
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