With the monsoon session of Parliament just a few days away (slated to begin on 18th July), Modi realises the criticality of building consensus for the crucial Bill. Also, there is widespread disappointment among investors and economy watchers with regard to the Modi government’s ability to pull off large-ticket reforms. There is not much expectations from the Modi government with respect to big reforms since the government is already past its prime. Modi realises that the passage of GST is crucial for him to silence his critics. Moreover, with the GST gaining tremendous national interest, Modi realises that the best political strategy is to isolate the ‘political party’ as the lone hurdle standing between the economy and the biggest tax reform of the decade. Except Congress, most other major parties have given the nod for GST, which is expected to help India create a uniform taxation regime subsuming several different taxes and offering clarity to overseas investors. With the new regime likely to help the country broaden the tax base, the GDP is expected to get an additional boost of 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent in due course. True, the BJP can’t entirely play the victim on GST. The BJP had hard-fought to block the crucial piece of reform when it was in opposition and one of the BJP leaders who was hell bent against GST was none other than Modi himself in his earlier Avatar as Gujarat Chief Minister. But, at this stage, that can’t be the reason for the Congress to take the revenge. The party, on the contrary, could use a temporary political defeat on the GST war as a tool to rebuild its shattered image. There are a few reasons why it should support the GST now, for one, so that the country won’t miss the April 2017 deadline and can give time to state governments pass their own GST legislation and put in place the system necessary for the final roll-out.
