VAT regime comes into effect

Bhopal, Apr 1: The Value Added Tax (VAT) regime has come into effect from today in Madhya Pradesh along with other BJP-ruled states of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

Though the Madhya Pradesh Assembly had enacted the VAT Act in 2002, it had been kept in abeyance. The Act was amended without debate on the last day of the Assembly's budget session last month and notified for implementation from today.

Cloth, sugar and tobacco, which were not covered under Commercial Taxes Act earlier, are exempt from VAT also, Commercial Taxes Commissioner P K Das said.

The commodities that figured on Schedule-1 of the Act under Central Government's Additional Duties of Excise (Goods of special importance) Act, 1957 are exempt from excise duty. As a result, these commodities would not come under the purview of VAT, he said.

UNI