Parliament's monsoon session likely to begin on July 18

The monsoon session of Parliament is likely to begin in the third week of July and end by mid August, with the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs set to meet on June 29 to decide on the schedule.

Sources say that the session is expected to start from July 18 and continue till August 13. The CCPA headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh will, however, take the final call at its meeting on June 29.

With increased strength and support from some opposition parties in Rajya Sabha, the government is keen to get the good and service tax bill, which has been pending for a long time now, passed in this session in the Upper House.

The government has already missed the target of implementing the GST regime from April 1, this year in the wake of stiff opposition to the tax reform measure by the Congress and some other parties.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has recently claimed that almost all the states have agreed to support GST. After a meeting of state finance ministers in Kolkata recently, Jaitley had said that except Tamil Nadu, which has some reservations, all other states favour the proposed legislation.

The GST is being touted as a key tax reform measure by the Modi government which will help give a fillip of 1 to 2 per cent to the country's GDP.

The Bill has already been passed by Lok Sabha.