| The state collected Rs 2,451 crore from VAT items during the first quarter, against a projection of Rs 2,701 crore, informed the Maharashtra sales tax commissioner B C Khatua. |
| He added that the state will submit its claims this weekend or the next week. |
| As per the compensation formula, states will be compensated fully this fiscal, if their revenue falls short of the projection, which is calculated on the basis of weighted average sales tax revenue during the best three of the last five years. |
| The average is added to the last fiscal's revenue and the resultant would be the projection. |
| As per the forumula, Maharashtra has projected revenue of Rs 13,000 crore this fiscal against Rs 10,800 crore during 2004-05. |
| However, empowered committee chairman Asim Dasgupta said that the compensation claims received from states are much less than what was expected. |
| "Very few states have asked for compensation," he said, but did not divulge the exact figure for compensation. |
| Wednesday's meeting was an interaction with sales tax commissioners of the states and a more detailed meeting with the finance ministers of the respective states will take place on Thursday. |
| Dasgupta said, the states finance ministers would discuss issues arising out of VAT introduction, including uniform floor rates, revenue growth and impact of the new tax on prices. |
| Dasgupta, who is also West Bengal finance minister, said that the eastern state had taken certain steps to ensure that customers were not charged higher prices. "We will listen to the steps taken by the other states at the meeting," he said. |
| The issue of persuading eight states to embrace the VAT regime is also on the agenda, he added. |
| While preparation of a harmonised system of nomenclature (HSN) list was discussed on Wednesday, sources said, it would take a couple of months before the list is out because of a large number of items. |
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