Chances of GST rollout before UPA term ends: Chidambaram

Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said there was a 70 per cent likelihood that the bill for a goods and services tax (GST) would be passed by Parliament before the end of the United Progressive Alliance government's term next year.

He said work on this tax, meant to replace the current plethora of taxes at the central and state levels, was in progress.

''GST is possible, but it's possible only if the central government and all the state governments, which are now ruled by eight or nine different political parties, are together,'' Chidambaram said at 'The Economist's India Summit' in New Delhi.

The minister said he was able to build consensus on VAT when he was the finance minister during the earlier UPA government, widely dubbed UPA-I.

''I am trying to forge a similar consensus on GST … now we reached a stage where the Empowered Council (of state finance ministers) has authorised us to draft a constitution amendment bill along with the normal bill for introducing GST,'' he said.

The introduction of a GST requires an amendment of the Constitution, which cannot be passed without the cooperation of the opposition parties and the states they rule.

Asked about the chances of GST being passed during the remaining 13 months of the government's term, the finance minister said, ''I think the chances are close to 70 per cent. If the Bills are endorsed (by the Empowered Council), then I think the chances of their passing are much higher,'' he said.

He said the bills are in the process of being drafted. ''We are moving ahead. Once the two draft bills are ready, I expect the next step can be taken … to get it endorsed by the council and then go to Parliament,'' he said.

Chidambaram quoted Sushil Kumar Modi, chairman of the Empowered Council, as saying that 80 per cent of the work on the GST has been done. Modi was confident that GST will go forward, he said.

The implementation of GST, which will subsume most of the indirect taxes, has missed several deadlines.