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Govt ready to include Cong views: Naidu

By The Assam Tribune

NEW DELHI, Jan 8 - Facing Congress criticism that his meeting with Sonia Gandhi on GST Bill issue was mere �optics�, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said that Government is willing to accommodate the views of Congress party �to the extent feasible�.

�Any stalemate could only be resolved based on give and take. On GST, the Government is willing to accommodate views of Congress party to the extent feasible. The Congress should reciprocate to enable the much-awaited tax reform through the introduction of the GST Bill.

�It was in this context that I met the Congress president yesterday, with a request to cooperate for early passage of the GST Bill. It was very unfortunate that Congress described the Government�s outreach to Congress as only meant for optics,� Naidu said in a statement.

Naidu yesterday drove to Gandhi�s residence at 10 Janpath to seek the Congress� cooperation in the passage of the GST and Real Estate Bills.

Noting that the introduction of the GST is a matter of serious and far-reaching reform initiative, Naidu said that it was first mooted by the NDA Government and later the UPA Government introduced the GST Bill which is pending for several years.

�Several issues were raised by Chief Ministers of different States and over the years considerable progress has been made by addressing the concerns of several States. There is now a broad consensus on the GST due to efforts made by the committee headed by Finance Ministers of different States and the Union Finance Ministry. In this backdrop, the NDA Government has now stepped up efforts to take forward the GST Bill pending in Rajya Sabha,� Naidu said. � PTI

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