The empowered committee of state finance ministers on value added tax (VAT) will take a decision tomorrow on removing variations in tax rates.The committee will also discuss in detail the issue of price rise due to implementation of VAT by states from this month, Asim Dasgupta, chairman of the empowered committee, said today.The committee collected data on variations in VAT rates and other implementation issues from officials of the 21 states that have switched over to the new tax system."Any decision on that (variations in rates) will be announced tomorrow," Dasgupta said after a four-hour long meeting with state sales tax commissioners and other officials.State finance ministers, including of those states that have not switched over to the new tax system, will attend the empowered committee meeting tomorrow.The data revealed that only a few states have resorted to variations in tax rates. "If we take 21 states that implemented VAT collectively, there have not been significant variations in rates from their committed stance. We have noted deviations in a few states," Dasgupta said.Sources said variations in rates have been found in a couple of states including Delhi.Delhi, in fact, altered the VAT rates of some items and put around 14 categories under the exempted list on Wednesday.
