Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha on Monday hoped that the Janata Dal-United and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, which retained power in Bihar, will back the central government in passing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in parliament."We are still hopeful to pass the bill in the winter session and implement in April 2016 for greater good of the country and including the northeastern states. It would have been easier for us if we have more of our members in the Rajya Sabha," Sinha told journalists here.
Exuding confidence that the Janata Dal-United and the Rashtriya Janata Dal would support the passage of the GST Bill, he said: "In the past (Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar has been supportive of the GST.""We will persuade the 'Mahagatbhandan' to support the GST in the Rajya Sabha as well. With that premise, we are hopeful that it would be possible to pass the GST bill in parliament in the winter session." Asked if the central government would re-consider restoring the special category status for the northeastern states following the unison demands of the chief ministers, Sinha said: "We need not to look back but move forward.""The most important thing as far as development of the northeast, our government is doing much more than previous government and we are committed to that," he said.