White paper on value-added tax by month-end
Tuesday, 14 December 2004, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: A top-level committee will unveil a white paper on value-added tax (VAT) by this month end and set up a group of experts with trade and industry representation. Asim Dasgupta, chairman of the Empowered Committee on VAT and West Bengal finance minister, told an industry seminar the country's VAT regime would be implemented as scheduled from Apr 1, 2005. "We are expecting the presidential assent for draft legislation submitted by various states soon," Dasgupta told the daylong seminar on "Design of VAT and its Implementation" organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Most state governments are fully prepared with draft legislation and efforts are on to make rules and regulations governing VAT not only simpler but easier to implement through computerisation of the system, he said. In what could be a positive step by the industry, Dasgupta said the empowered committee had decided to allow states to continue with existing incentives even after the implementation of the VAT regime without disturbing the chain. He said after the implementation of VAT, central sales tax will continue to be levied at four percent in the first year and phased out from the second year to lessen the burden on stakeholders. "Other taxes like additional sales tax, surcharge on sales tax and turnover tax will be abolished. If octroi remains, there has to be a set-off for it." He said the so-called inspector-monitored system will be replaced by a regime of self-assessment, wherein there will be in-built checks based on transparency and mutual trust.
Source: IANS
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