India Lawmakers Defer Votes on Tax, Land in Latest Modi Setback

Indian lawmakers delayed votes on bills to create a national sales tax and make it easier to buy land, setting back Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plans to boost growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.

The bills will now be sent to committees for scrutiny before they are taken up again in the next parliamentary session in July. The delay will make it tougher for Modi to meet his April 2016 goal for implementing the goods and services tax, or GST, one of India’s biggest economic reforms in decades.