After more than a decade and a half of discussion, it seems like the Goods and Services Tax Bill might be close to becoming a reality. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tabled the Constitutional Amendment Bill that would introduced the GST in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. It has already been passed in the Lok Sabha and the government appears to have the numbers to pass it.

This is in part because the Congress party, which was for months opposed to the GST Bill, decided to come on board after the government indicated a softening of its stand on a number of provisions. Former finance minister P Chidambaram spoke right after Jaitley had tabled the Bill, to explain the Congress' position on the matter.

Chidambaram spent some time trying to give the Congress, and himself, credit for the GST. This is both fair – it was the United Progressive Alliance government after all that first tried to bring in the legislation, although it was unable to do so despite being in power for a decade – but also academic. After all, it was the Bharatiya Janata Party, under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, that first set up a committee to look into the establishment of a GST.

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This was expected. The Congress for long has been concerned that the GST would be too great of an achievement to grant its rivals the BJP, and so found reasons to drag its heels in offering support. Stubborn approaches from the government, in particularly former Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu and a promise to wipe the Congress off the map of India, didn't exactly encourage the party to deal with the BJP either.

But as it slowly found itself alone, barring just the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Congress became more concerned that it would be protrayed as an obstacle on the path to India's development. Especially since it had championed the GST as a singularly important reform for the country, it seemed incongruent that it would continue to stand in its way.

The Trinamool Congress' Derek O'Brien called out the Congress for their approach on this.

Ultimately, though it appears the Bill is all set to be passed.

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But the battle does not end with today's vote. Once the Constitutional Amendment, altering the taxation powers given to the Centre and states to clear the decks for a Goods and Services Tax, is passed, much more will still have to happen. The amendment will first have to be approved by assemblies of at least 15 states (more than half of India's 29 states).

Then a GST Council will be set up featuring representation from both the Centre and the states. And finally, presumably in the Winter Session, the government will need to pass two pieces of legislation that will govern how the GST, both the central version and the inter-state version, will actually operate. Each of the states will also have to pass their own state GST law.

Before this can happen there is potential for even more politicking, which Chidambaram sought to jump out ahead of in his speech in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

  • First Chidambaram asked for the government to commit to a standard GST rate of 18%, which it could go under but not breach. The Congress had long maintained that this cap needed to be included in Wednesday's bill, which it dropped because of opposition from nearly everyone else. Adding it to the Constitutional Amendment would mean needing two-thirds majority if it ever had to be changed, a blatantly impractical option. 
  • Instead, Chidambaram has now asked the government to ensure that the standard rate in the follow-up legislation is marked at 18%, a rate he claims will not spur inflation and keep the burden on the common person low, and one suggested by this government's chief economic advisor. Jaitley had earlier, in an interview, agreed that it should be kept under 18% but Chidambaram insisted that the Congress would go to the people and campaign on the idea that the tax rate should be capped at this rate. Moreover, he insisted the government propose a mechanism for setting the tax rate that would have to go through Parliament, so that the rate could not be changed at the whim of the executive. 
  • Finally, Chidambaram brought up a tactic that has been abused by the government: the use of money bills. Earlier this year, for example, the government passed its law enshrining the use of Aadhar through a money bill, meaning it didn't need to pass the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP is still in a minority. Chidambaram called on the government to commit to bringing the follow-up GST Bills as financial bills, not money bills, to ensure that they have to pass both houses before they can be turned into law, a position that received support from a number of other parties. 

Jaitley will get a chance to respond to these questions by the end of the debate, before the voting. But even if the government commits to the demands raised by the Congress, it is clear that there is plenty of politicking ahead on the issue, especially with crucial state elections coming up next year. Passage of the bill would only be the beginning.