Opposition setting a wrong precedent by disrupting Parliament: Arun Jaitley on GST Bill impasse

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday expressed hope that the GST Bill, which is currently stuck in Rajya Sabha, will be passed next year.

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday accused the Opposition of setting a wrong precedence for those who will sit on the opposition benches in future by continuously disrupting Parliament and said decision making in future will have to shift to executive actions and money bills.

Irked by Congress disrupting Rajya Sabha for the second session in a row to stall passage of the all-important Constitution Amendment Bill to bring Goods and Services Tax (GST), he said history would not be kind to the "outlaws of Parliamentary" system.

Addressing a gathering of industry leaders on GST, he said with government business being blocked in Rajya Sabha, future decision making "will have to take place through executive action and money bills."

Money bills, which largely concern taxation, government spending or having financial implications, can be introduced only in Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha cannot make amendments in a Money Bill passed by Lok Sabha and transmitted to it.

Mere approval of Lok Sabha, where the ruling BJP has an absolute majority, is enough to push through a legislation that has been certified as money bill by the lower house
speaker.

"If by sheer noise and disturbance, session after session of the Parliament is not allowed to function then this is a going to be a precedence for Parliament of the future and all opposition for state legislation," Jaitley said.

He said the country is entering into a phase where "legislative activity is going to become increasingly more difficult."

"I do realise that executive actions and money bills are more easily implementable than routine legislations," Jaitley said.

He said the impasse over GST is resolvable provided there was an intention to resolve it.

To get GST, Parliamentary democracy must be allowed to function.

Observing the India's growth rate could go up by as much as 1 to 2 percent with reforms and improvement in the global economic situation, Jaitley said, "nobody has the right to halt
and slowdown the process."

India is the only bright spot recording a "respectable growth" of 7 and 7.5 percent when the whole world in going through a bad phase, he said, adding "out potential is significantly more than what we are achieving."

"India has right to grow much faster, India has right to achieve full potential, and nobody in India has right to slowdown the process of growth," he said.

Jaitley said most countries in the world are facing challenges and some of them are impacting India as well.