Quibbling between the Centre and the states on who should provide more relief to consumers on fuel prices intensified with the latter asking the Union Government to give an account of accruals to it from the latest hike in petrol and diesel prices.
With 21 states agreeing to switch over to value added tax from April 1, finance minister P Chidambaram on Thursday asked the remaining states, including Uttar Pradesh and BJP-ruled states, to implement it and add a historic dimension to centre-state
An official panel on Tuesday ruled out any increase in value added tax (VAT) rates as part of a package to compensate states on account of revenue loss due to a one per cent cut in Central Sales Tax that was to have happened in the beginning of this fiscal.
The empowered committee of state fnance ministers had recommended to the finance ministry that the Centre should provide direct budgetary support and transfer more services to states on account of the rate cut, sources said. States have refused to hike the value-added tax rate on more than 250 items like drugs, agricultural and industrial inputs from 4 per cent to 5 per cent to make up for revenue loss.
Is the DGH right about ONGC's track record?
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is set to win seven of the 20 oil and gas blocks auctioned in January while Reliance Industries would bag six.
'There is ample evidence to suggest that attacks on the PM's probity and his connections with business houses do not resonate with voters.'
Twenty one states which have switched over to Value-Added Tax on Tuesday agreed to adopt uniform rates for industrial input, capital goods and essential commodities like medicines, salt, bread and PDS items.
After the Centre, the states have joined the fight against inflation. Later this month, they will discuss a proposal to exempt rice, wheat and pulses from value added tax.
Punjab government has approved Anil Ambani Group's Rs 5,000-crore (Rs 50 billion) multi-product special economic zone in the state.
The Centre is planning to establish a Taxation Information Exchange System to track inter-state trade of all commodities after the phase-out of Central Sales Tax.
The official panel on value added tax decided on Thursday to ask the Centre to cut Central Sales Tax, imposed on inter-state movement in goods, to three per cent from the current four per cent from October.
A day after empowered committee of state finance ministers expressed its determination to implement VAT from April1, traders on Tuesday said they will "gherao" Parliament on Wednesday in protest against the new "inflationary" tax system.
ICICI Infotech outsmarted Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro to get the mandate from states for setting up a national tax information exchange system (Tinxsys) to track inter-state transactions and check tax evasion.
The meeting of the Empowered Committee of Finance Ministers of States and Union Territories began with some states demanding that they be allowed to charge service tax on certain items pending a decision on the implementation of VAT.
The threat by IT firms to boycott the annual mega IT show here in October seems to have blown over after state government promised to upgrade Bangalore's infrastructure.
In a major step towards tax reforms, the Centre on Tuesday agreed on a 3-tier system of compensating the states that incur revenue loss on account of implementing the value-added tax from April 2005.
For the first time in his political career, he failed to carry his party to even a working majority -- and again, for the first time in his career, he finds himself in a situation where he cannot rule by dictatorial fiat, points out Prem Panicker.
Six more states are set to join the value added tax regime from April
The contentious issue of value added tax was resolved on Tuesday with the state finance ministers deciding to implement from June 1 the new tax system in place of the sales tax.
The panel on value added tax has decided that items which have at least 50 per cent industrial use will attract 4 per cent tax rate for that particular use.
Maharashtra is likely to incur a revenue loss of Rs 1,500-2,000 crore (Rs 15-20 billion) in the current fiscal due to implementation of value added tax.
