Industry & Economy
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Taxation
VAT Bill in winter session: Jaswant
Our Bureau
NEW DELHI, Nov. 14
THE Government will introduce a Bill in the forthcoming Winter Session of Parliament to enable the implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT) in the country from April.1, 2003, the Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, has said.
According to Mr Singh, there was broad consensus on the introduction of VAT and a number of state Governments had already enacted legislations in this regard. The Minister sought the support of parliamentarians for the passage of the proposed amendment Bill which will seek to amend Article 269 of the Constitution to facilitate implementation of VAT.
At the meeting of the Consultative Committee of MPs attached to the Ministry of Finance and Company Affairs on Thursday, Mr Singh said the Union Government was committed to improving the fiscal situation of the States.
The Government, which had set up a high-level committee with this in mind, proposed to retire the debt of State Governments aggregating Rs 25,000 crore in the first phase of the scheme.
Mr Singh said some of the Centrally-sponsored schemes were being transferred to the State Governments.
However, since 80 per cent of the Plan expenditure is based on borrowed funds, there is a need to ensure that it remains within reasonable limits.
Some of the MPs suggested that expenditure could be reduced by downsizing Government staff, closing down or privatising uneconomic expenditure in the States and undertaking administrative reforms to streamline some of the multiple schemes.
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