Kolkata: Playing down the walk-out staged yesterday by the Opposition parties in Parliament on the GST Bill, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha on Saturday said the government is not expecting any resistance to its passage.
"Our expectation is based on what we have got from our discussions with the empowered committee of state finance ministers, and there is a broad consensus. We do not expect any opposition to the GST Bill," Sinha told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar here.
The long-pending Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill was on Friday moved in the Lok Sabha for consideration amid stiff resistance by several Opposition parties.
Members of Congress, led by Sonia Gandhi, along with those of TMC, Left and NCP staged a walk out after their plea for referring the Constitution Amendment Bill to the Standing Committee was not accepted.
Echoing Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Sinha said it's now time to get the GST Bill passed in Parliament and have it in place by April 1, 2016.
"But there are some implementation issues which we are working on through the GST Council," he admitted.
On CST compensation, he said the Centre had already started disbursements of dues, which the earlier UPA government had stalled, leading to trust deficit between the Centre and states.
The total CST dues touched the Rs 30,000 crore mark and will be paid fully by fiscal 2017, Sinha promised.
