Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said the NDA government has not taken any wrong step in economic decision-making till now while calling for greater consensus amongst political parties for reforms to go through smoothly.

This would help the economy move to a higher growth rate of 7.5 per cent, he said at the Growth Net Summit, which was jointly organised by the Ananta Centre and CII.

Speaking ahead of the second-half of the Budget Session that starts on April 25, the Finance Minister also expressed hope of smooth passage of the Bankruptcy Code and amendments to the Companies Act. Blaming the Congress party, which has a majority in the Rajya Sabha for blocking the Goods and Services Tax, he said he would further discuss with them their demand for capping the tax rates in the Constitution Amendment Bill.

“The only opponent to GST is the Congress party. Curiously, the party which had sponsored the law in the first instance has some belated wisdom that you must have a Constitutional cap. Now that seems a little difficult… I will be discussing it with them. I am all for the idea of having a reasonable rate as far as GST is concerned, which the GST Council will decide,” he said, adding that he hopes to reach a consensus with them on the issue. He added that there is now a demand to keep luxury items out of the proposed taxation system, which would mean that luxury items are subsidised by essential goods. “You can’t create a situation where GST moves up into 20s by keeping luxury items and then say that now maintain it at 18 per cent,” he said, adding that he supports a GST rate of 16-18 per cent. But underlining the need for a more mature level of thought and discussion, he said that there is a need to discuss to what extent the Upper House is used to block economic decision-making.

“To what extent our Upper House is going to be used to block economic decision-making... in Australia the debate is on, the UK has gone through this debate a while ago and Italy is having the same debate. Because ultimately the weight of a directly elected House will always have to be maintained,” he said.

With the Aadhaar Bill being tabled as a Money Bill and passed by Parliament, Jaitley said that several pieces of legislation, which are money Bills, only require approval of the Lower House, where there is no form of political obstructionism.

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