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"Implementation of VAT only after consultations"

Special Correspondent

Rajasthan Minister allays fears of traders, industrialists

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Minister of State for Finance, Virendra Meena, has assured traders, businessmen and industrialists that the much talked about value added tax (VAT) would be implemented in the State only after wide-ranging consultations with them and their views and suggestions would be taken into account to protect the rights of small traders.

Mr. Meena, addressing a series of workshops on "VAT awareness'' at the divisional headquarters of Udaipur and Jodhpur over the week-end, said the State Government was deliberating on the shape to be given to VAT in view of the fact that the Centre was yet to fulfil its commitment regarding the Central Sales Tax. ''Traders should know beforehand the difficulties likely to be faced if VAT is implemented in the present form,'' he said.

The Minister affirmed that only those provisions of VAT would be brought into effect which do not cause losses to the business sector. He said the interaction with traders in this regard -- which was the first such exercise in the country -- would help the State Government understand the distress and anxieties of traders.

The State Government has been pleading with the Centre the case of VAT, while pointing out the difficulties in its implementation with the continuance of CST, for the past two years and a half. Mr. Meena said a meeting regarding the VAT in Rajasthan would be convened in New Delhi on March 11.

The Deputy Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, H.L. Pandey, who participated in the workshops to clarify the doubts of traders, pointed out that 21 States and four Union Territories had already implemented VAT.

He provided details of assessment, refund, filing of returns, penalties and issues arising during the transition period in the VAT regime. Pankaj Ghiya, an expert on VAT pointed out that VAT would be beneficial for industrialists and exporters.

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