New Delhi, March 19
The BJP-ruled states today decided to oppose the introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) from April 1 on the plea that “piecemeal” implementation of the tax was “undesirable”.
A statement, issued after a meeting of the Chief Ministers of five BJP ruled states, said since it was unlikely that VAT could be introduced in the entire country, “piecemeal introduction of the new tax will be undesirable”.
The meeting also sought “requisite preparatory steps”, including a roadmap to phase out Central Sales Tax, before the introduction of the central tax.
While maintaining that it considered VAT as a “progressive tax system”, the meeting, chaired by BJP President L.K. Advani, said the regime should be “uniformally implemented” and if important states like Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, which were yet to pass the legislation, were left out, “there will be a lot of chaos and confusion”.
Giving reasons for the party stand, the statement said: “It is not clear whether the information system and the procedure have been fully created so that the payers can obtain exemptions in a hassle-free manner”.
The meeting also called upon the Centre to fully address the difficulties before insisting on the introduction of VAT. “It is essential that VAT be introduced only when care is taken of the fiscal interests of the states, the concern of the tax-payer and, most importantly, the interests of the consuming public”, the statement said.
Asserting that except Jharkhand, where the requisite legislation could not be passed due to the model poll code, all BJP-ruled states were “fully prepared” for the introduction of VAT, the conclave demanded a “clear road map for phasing out the Central Sales Tax as both cannot go together”.
