Bhubaneswar, Jan 10: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has claimed that BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are opposed to passing the Goods and Services Tax Bill in the Parliament and not the Congress party.
“The truth is that BJP, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah do not want GST but they are putting the blame on Congress,” Ramesh claimed and asked BJP leaders to refrain from spreading “falsehood.”
Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha had on Friday charged that Congress is stalling the bill.
Claiming that the GST bill is unable to see the green light because Modi is not in favour of the measure, Ramesh said the BJP government in Gujarat had also opposed the bill.
“Congress has already made it amply clear that it is not at all against the GST bill. We want its passage as early as possible. It was during UPA government that the bill was introduced in Parliament,” Ramesh told reporters here.
He termed the whole exercise of the Centre to get the bill passed, including Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu’s meeting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to seek support for the bill, as an “eyewash and drama.”
After the GST Bill was introduced in Parliament in March, 2011 by the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, it went to the standing committee on finance chaired by a senior BJP leader which gave its report two and half years later, after “undue” delay as Gujarat government and Modi were against it, the senior Congress leader said.
Ramesh said Congress only wants three changes in the existing bill to make it really “good and simple tax” which would benefit the consumers and not the industry.
Terming the present bill as neither good nor simple but only tax, he said Congress has sought a ceiling of 18 per cent, removal of additional one per cent tax and setting up of a judicial body and mechanism to address disputes between states and between state and the Centre.
The moment these three conditions are agreed to and necessary modifications made, Congress would ensure that the GST Bill is passed as soon as possible, Ramesh said adding the government is yet to respond to the proposals in a positive way.
He also accused the Narendra Modi government of stalling a probe against BJD regime in chit fund and mining scams in Odisha as part of a “deal.”
“It is clear that there is a deal between BJP and BJD to subvert the ongoing CBI probe into chitfund scam to save senior ruling party leaders in Odisha and get the regional outfit’s support in Parliament in return,” senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh told reporters here. Modi acted like ventilator and CBI as oxygen cylinder, Naveen Patnaik happened to be the patient as the CBI probe in chit fund scam slowed down, Ramesh said.
Around 20 lakh people in the state were hit by the chit fund scam involving alleged irregularities to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore. Ramesh said that a Union minister and senior tribal leader from the state recently came out with the truth “by mistake”.
Stating that his party has full confidence in CBI and Supreme Court but not in Modi, Ramesh said the Congress demands that the ongoing investigation into the ponzi scheme scam in Odisha by the premier agency be monitored by the apex court. Similarly, there should be a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe into the mining scam to the tune of Rs 3 lakh crore in the state, he said. Though Justice MB Shah Commission had recommended CBI inquiry into mining scam in Odisha, Modi Government is yet to take any action in this direction even 18 months after coming to power, he said. To a query, Ramesh said no scam takes place without political nexus.
Both chit fund and mining scams in Odisha occurred with full involvement of politicians, he said, adding that a BJD MP, a BJD MLA and others were arrested by CBI in chit fund scam.
