Ahead of the Union Budget for 2008-09, state finance ministers on Thursday met Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on the issue of reviving Long-Term Cooperative Credit Structure (LTCCS).

Sources said a delegation of state finance ministers discussed the final package for the revival of LTCCS, based on the Vaidyanathan-II Committee report.

The delegation included West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, who also heads the Empowered Group of State Finance Ministers on Value-Added Tax. However, the delegation did not discuss the issues relating to Goods and Services Tax and compensation package for the Central Sales Tax, which are the matters relating to the VAT panel and the Union Finance Ministry, sources said.

The Centre had earlier said that the final package for revival of LTCCS would be sent to the states by March 15 for their acceptance. It had said that there was consensus on 95 per cent of the package and hoped that states would accept the recommendations of the committee report.

Even though the size of the package was initially pegged at Rs 4,850 crore (Rs 48.5 billion), it could undergo some changes to accommodate suggestions made by the states. States are now demanding that the Centre bear a larger share of the financial package.

The sharing pattern designed by the task force had proposed 74:11:15 ratio among the Centre, states and the co-operatives.