“We Hope to Pass GST, Bankruptcy Bills This Session”: Arun Jaitley

Jaitley: Hope to see more landmark legislation in the second session, after Aadhaar Bill and Real Estate Bill.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday that the government hopes to pass the landmark Constitution Amendment Bill for a national Goods and Services Tax (GST) – as well as the bankruptcy and insolvency bill – in the second half of the Budget session, beginning on April 20.

The GST bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha and is pending ratification by the Upper House, where the ruling NDA does not have a majority. After it is approved by the Rajya Sabha, the legislation needs to be ratified by half of the 29 states so as to roll out GST possibly by October 1.

Govt Hoping for More “Landmark Legislation”

The current session of Parliament has already seen one landmark legislation two days ago. And I hope to see another two being passed in the second part of the session – with regard to the bankruptcy and insolvency laws and GST.

Arun Jaitley, at the Advancing Asia Conference, New Delhi

Jaitley was referring to the Aadhar Bill and the Real Estate Bill. The Parliament had last week passed the Aadhar Bill – providing statutory backing to the unique identification number for transferring government subsidies and benefits.

Also, the Real Estate Bill was approved by the Rajya Sabha.

Jaitley declared that once the GST and the bankruptcy and insolvency laws were approved, it would “give a major fillip to our reform process, even in an otherwise weak global scenario.” This would enable India to provide a significant amount of growth to the world as well, he added.

“Next Few Months Will be Important for Structural Change”

We are trying now to place special emphasis on both legislative changes as well as resources to strengthen the banking system. I do feel that the next few months will be extremely important in terms of bringing about structural change.

Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister

Stating that India has its own share of problems, Jaitley said that there was increased determination in the country to face the challenges and accelerate the pace of reforms so as to continue to grow.

“Our growth model is based on concerns to eradicate poverty,” he said.

(With inputs from PTI)