The Big Story: Goodies and Services

The Bharatiya Janata Party-run government appears to be inching closer to consensus on the long-awaited Goods and Services Tax Bill, a major tax reform that is aimed at turning India into one common market. The Goods and Services Tax will subsume all existing indirect taxes like octroi, service tax, excise duty, value-added tax: life will become easier for people doing business anywhere in the country as they will have to pay only a single levy.

The legislation was for years stuck in Parliament because of BJP opposition to it. When the saffron party came to power, the situation was reversed, with the Congress now standing in its way. The BJP claims that the Congress is simply obstructing the reform, although the party has put forward some concerns about the drafting of the legislation, which had earlier been echoed by other parties as well.

It now seems like the BJP has managed to convince most of the other parties, not counting the Congress and the Left, of the need for the GST. It even managed to get finance ministers of 22 states to unite against the idea that the tax rate should be mentioned in a constitutional amendment, one of the Congress's key demands.

But the BJP is not home safe yet. Two parties — the Samajwadi Party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam — are opposed to the tax and the government needs at least one on its side to have the numbers in the Rajya Sabha.

On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa put forward her objections to the legislation and demanded that the weight of the Centre's vote in the GST council (which will set the tax rate) be reduced in favour of more powerful states. It also demanded a different revenue share for high revenue states, instead of the additional 1% tax proposed.

Both of these may also be Congress demands, but it is clear, coming from the AIADMK that they aren't simply diversions. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has indicated a willingness to reconsider some of these provisions. If his government's cooperative federalism slogan is to be put into practice, he should ensure that the new tax regime incorporates the inputs of successful states that stand to lose the most.

The Big Scroll:
The complete guide to understanding the Goods and Services Tax.

For the rest of the day's biggest headlines, go check out The Latest.

Politicking & Policying:
1. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party doubled down on Tuesday, insisting that the office of profit row, which could see 21 Members of Legislative Assembly disqualified, was a political vendetta.
2. Industrialist Vijay Mallya will find it difficult to stay in the United Kingdom after a Special Court declared him a proclaimed offender for ignoring summons in a money laundering case.
3. With another meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group where it will consider India's application to join on June 23, India is continuing its whirlwind diplomacy, focusing now on sceptics like South Africa and Turkey.
4. Twitter has become a place where a Bihar minister can use the word "dear" to address the Union Human Resource Development Minister, and that turns into news.

Punditry
1. The real problem in Punjab is not the drug menace. It's the reason the youth are drawn to drugs in the first place, writes Himanshu in Mint.
2. Be prepared for an extremely communal few months in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh elections, writes Badri Narayan in the Indian Express, saying it is clear the Bharatiya Janata Party intends to polarise the electorate.
3. David Roberts in Vox uses 8 charts to explain how the climate change fight will be won or lost in India.

Don't Miss
Nimesh Ved points out that the debate over culling of animals in India lacks nuance and deserves to be much better thought out.

"A member of the Bihar State Wildlife Board once said how the state government had written to large conservation organisations for assistance on the subject a couple of years ago. Each of these organisations, which receive a major chunk of their funding for the conservation of tigers and other species, had either expressed their inability to act, or did not reply on the issue of herbivores proving to be a nuisance to farmers, which has resulted in the culling of large number of tiger prey today.

The lack of research on the topic is stark. This research is essential as it feeds policy and helps shape future actions, as opposed to research that results in publications or fuels academic debates at conferences."

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