Pranab reaches out to BJP on GST

Mukherjee hosted the BJPs parliamentary party chairman L K Advani,the leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha,Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley respectively,to seek their help to convince the states where the NDA is in power to give their nod for implementation of the GST.

Sources said although the BJP in principle was in favour of the GST,it was unable to find a common position with some party-ruled states opposing and some favouring the new tax regime. It is not a political issue. The opposition has more to do with autonomy of states. While the states where end-use consumption is high will benefit,the states which are smaller but are sitting on huge raw material reserves and are unable to do anything because of high poverty and lack of development would suffer, said a party source.