Chidambaram for early VAT

MUMBAI: Finance minister P Chidambaram wants an early introduction of VAT. He is planning to call a meeting of all CMs shortly to strike a deal on the issue.
While the NDA government had proposed to introduce VAT in April ’03, it had to postpone the decision since all state governments were not fully geared up to implement it. Corporates have welcomed the move.
They feel that VAT will not only reduce the incidence of taxation, but also improve competitiveness to a great extent. VAT will have a positive impact on different sectors as it will reduce overall costs in an industry such as chemicals where the value additions are huge.