VAT Committee For Center, State Level GST

The empowered Panel on Value-Added Tax (VAT) has favoured giving the union as well as state governments the power to levy Goods and Service Tax (GST) when it is rolled out on April 1, 2010, instead of vesting the power with the Centre alone. The committee comprising state finance ministers is agreeable to the idea of a dual structure a central GST and a state GST, its Chairman Asim Dasgupta said in New Delhi. The Empowered Group of State Finance Ministers on VAT would send its recommendations to the Centre next month after the state finance ministers give their views in writing. In a nutshell, within the framework of GST, there would be more than one slab of tax for goods, but a single rate for services at the state level. Like VAT, there would be set off that is amount of tax paid on inputs would be reimbursed at both the Central and state levels. GST at the state level will subsume as many taxes on goods and services as possible and feasible.