VAT panel to meet FM in-mid July to set new roadmap

NEW DELHI: The Empowered Committee on Value-added Tax will meet the Finance Minister in mid July to discuss the "roadmap" for introduction of the new tax regime, after which it will be taken up with political parties for a national consensus.
"The committee will be meeting in the middle of July. We will meet the Finance Minister also," VAT panel chairman Asim Dasgupta said on Thursday.
After the meeting, he said the committee will meet major political parties for a nationwide consensus.
"Some of the members of the Empowered Committee will be there," Dasgupta, also the West Bengal Finance Minister, said.
He was non-committal on whether VAT could be implemented in this fiscal.
The contentious VAT had missed the June one deadline with Centre deciding to come up with a "new roadmap" in consultation with political parties and Empowered Committee of state finance ministers.
About 11 states, which were earlier prepared to implement VAT from June 1, could not do so as Finance Minister Jaswant Singh opposed a "patchwork" implementation without all states fully prepared for it.
Centre intends to consult the main political parties and VAT panel for coming up with the new progressive tax system, whose introduction was deferred more than three times since 2001.
In its last meeting in Delhi, Dasgupta had asserted that 11 states were ready to introduce the new tax regime provided they get the Presidential assent to their respective VAT bills in time.