UP reluctant to impose VAT

The Uttar Pradesh government is not in the mood of pursuing traders or industry on the issue of value-added tax (VAT), thus making UP the only state in the country which does not come under the VAT regime.

"We are not arguing on the merits of VAT," said UP Principal Secretary (Finance) Shekhar Agarwal adding, "It is still not implemented in the state because the traders do not want it."

Rubbishing claims that the state suffered on the revenue collection in comparison to other states which have accepted VAT Agarwal said, "UP has better tax collection figures than many others in the country."

The state has achieved an overwhelming 26.7 per cent increase in trade tax which is 99.4 per cent of the target. Receipts of trade tax upto November 30 were Rs 8,497.16 crore.

For the records, Uttar Pradesh is the only state which did not implement VAT. At present, the government is reluctant to talk about the issue to traders or industry.

The figures, as stated in the Vote On Account, presented by chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in December last year, also reflected the same. After 19 years, the state government has incurred plan expenditure in excess of State Plan Outlay. The outlay was of Rs 13,500 crore while the expenditure made against the plan was Rs 13,638.57 crore. New schemes of Rs 7,679 crore were also included in the budget.

The highest contribution received in the tax revenue receipts were the Trade Tax which achieved 99.4 percent against the target with receipts amounting to Rs.8497.16 crores.

Second highest contributor was the Stamp and Registration department with a contribution of Rs. 2920.02 crores, an achievement of 121.7 percent against the target. While the least in the line was contributed by Motor Vehicle, Goods and Passenger tax which has shown an achievement of 86 percent against target with the receipts amounts to Rs. 748.35 crores.

"We are not pressurizing anyone to pay tax neither anyone is targeted. This performance of increased tax collection is achieved only through systematic monitoring of various departments and the economy as a whole," explained Agarwal. "We are infact emotional about the whole thing," he added.