TN Govt will introduce Bill to implement VAT: Ubayadullah

Chennai, Nov 15 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu Government will introduce a Bill in the coming session of the Assembly to implement Value Added Tax (VAT) from January 1, Commercial Taxes Minister S N M Ubayadullah said today.

Addressing a press conference here, he said VAT had been enforced in 130 countries across the world and in India, all states except Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Pondicherry had implemented it.

He said Tamil Nadu had also decided to join the VAT regime, acceding to the demand of traders.

Stating that Tamil Nadu was likely to incur a loss of about Rs 3,000 crore per annum due to implementation of VAT, he said the Centre would compensate the loss up to 75 per cent this year.

Though the state had requested the Centre for full compensation, it had not given positive response so far. ''However, we will continue to impress upon the Centre in this regard,'' he added.

Mr Ubayadullah said Tamil Nadu would be worst-hit by implementation of VAT as its revenue income under Sales Tax was much higher when compared to other states.

However, he expressed hope that the state's revenue income would increase after initial years of loss under the VAT regime.

The Minister said the Sales Tax exemption given to certain commodities would continue even after the enforcement of VAT.

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