New Delhi: The goods and services tax (GST) council meeting this week may provide another opportunity for senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley – who is recovering from surgery and currently listed as a minister without portfolio on the PMO’s website – to re-assert himself as the de facto head of the finance ministry.
Over the last two months, since the appointment of Piyush Goyal as interim finance minister, Jaitley and the BJP have faced political criticism and media speculation as to how exactly the division of power between both ministers is playing out.
This Saturday, which is when the first GST council meeting in a little over two months will be held, will give Jaitley an opportunity for the first time to publicly participate in the decision-making process.
The meetings of the GST council are usually held once in eight weeks, sometimes more often, and are traditionally chaired by the Union finance minister. While some meetings are held through video conferencing or in various state capitals, the more crucial ones are held in Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
The GST council will convene at Vigyan Bhawan this Saturday.
The Wire has learned that Jaitley is currently making preparations to for a video-conference interaction with the state finance ministers during the council meeting, which is supposed to be officially chaired by Goyal.
The question that government watchers and other ministry officials are asking is whether a minister without a portfolio will address a GST council meeting.
While the situation may be resolved by the PMO, the upcoming GST meeting is expected to be equal parts economic and political. The council is expected to take a call on whether the tax on sanitary napkins can be cut to 5% from its current 12%, a long-standing demand that has been raised by women’s rights advocates.
This meeting will also be the first fledged gathering of the council in a little over two months and the first since Piyush Goyal was appointed as interim finance minister.
Who does what?
Over the last two months, India’s stand-in-finance minister and the minister that he is standing in for have danced around their peculiar situation.
Officially, Goyal has assumed most of the day-to-day-responsibilities. As reports have noted, Goyal attends cabinet meetings and other engagements, the ministry’s secretaries brief him, and the final decision making with regards to a regular day’s work is handled by him.
However, the BJP’s treasurer has largely stuck to one specific aspect of work: the urgent need to deal with the banking sector’s non-performing assets, its consolidation plans and recapitalisation needs and financial crimes like dealing with the Nirav Modi investigation.
Jaitley on the other hand, according to people with knowledge of the matter, remains a crucial part of the decision-making process within the ministry and holds regular video-conferences with officials, ministerial colleagues and also party functionaries.
For instance, last month, Business Standard reported that the decision to call off the Air India stake sale process was taken by the group of ministers at a meeting that was held at Jaitley’s residence and not the finance ministry.
The exit of chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, who is close to Jaitley, was also handled by the recovering BJP leader.
Attendance at summits
With the finance ministry’s decision-making process fractured between Jaitley and Goyal, the stand-off between both BJP leaders has also spilled over to public events.
For instance, in the first week of July 2018, both ministers made their presence known at the State Bank of India’s annual ‘Banking and Economics Conclave’ – while Jaitley addressed the gathering in Mumbai by video-conference, Goyal inaugurated the conclave and participated in its first session.
This incidentally also happened at the event commemorating the first anniversary of the GST regime. Here again, Jaitley addressed the event through video conference, while Goyal presided over the function as its chief guest.
Whether the GST council meeting, an ostensibly public-facing policy-making process, will be a replay of this remains to be seen.