Asim Dasgupta, chairman of the empowered committee on value added tax (VAT), today expressed optimism that an agreement will be reached on uniform VAT rates in all states at tomorrow's meeting of state finance ministers."I am optimistic," Dasgupta said in response to a query whether some kind of a breakthrough will be achieved at tomorrow's meeting regarding consensus on uniform rates.Dasgupta, who chaired the meeting of state sales tax commissioners and other officials today, said variations in VAT rates were not very significant, but the issue was prime on the agenda of the empowered committee meeting."We are collecting information from all 20 states (that have implemented VAT so far) and we will discuss it tomorrow," Dasgupta said.The meeting tomorrow assumes importance as states had failed to arrive at an agreement on uniform VAT rates at the last meeting on April 15-16.Besides taking a firm decision on rates, the meeting of state finance ministers is also expected to discuss other issues like tax treatment of petroleum products.After the two-day meeting, the empowered committee is also likely to prepare a schedule for visiting states that have not implemented VAT for persuading them to switch over to the new system.
