Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed all the four bills under the Goods and Service Tax (GST). The bill was moved by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for consideration in Lok Sabha. The GST is all set to roll from July 1.
The government faced a major embarrassment in the Rajya Sabha as five amendments moved by the Opposition to the Finance Bill 2017 were adopted before the House approved the measure.
Of the five opposition amendments, three were moved by the Congress member Digvijaya Singh and two by Sitaram Yechury of CPI(M).
The amendments were adopted with a significant margin, with the difference of votes ranging between 27 and 34 votes.
Trinamool Congress, which has 10 members, staged a walkout before the voting in the House where the ruling NDA is in a minority. In the 245-member House, the BJP has 56 members while the NDA jointly has 74 members.
Earlier, while replying to the debate, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley strongly defended the government’s endeavour to make Aadhaar compulsory for access to various benefits, saying it was necessary to check frauds, including tax evasion.
Responding to repeated questions by the Congress members as to why Aadhaar was being made mandatory, he countered by asking why this technology should not be utilised since it was created for public benefit.When referred to the leakage of Aadhaar details of cricketer M S Dhoni, Jaitley said it was the result of an immature act by somebody in Ranchi against whom action has been taken.
When referred to the leakage of Aadhaar details of cricketer M S Dhoni, Jaitley said it was the result of an immature act by somebody in Ranchi against whom action has been taken.
