The Centre and the states were at loggerheads today over the value-added tax (VAT).
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said a poorly implemented VAT would not work and advised against setting any deadline. The empowered committee of state finance ministers, however, stuck to the June 1 deadline for 15 states to switch over to the new tax.
The committee, which concluded its two-day meeting today, drew up the list of items that will attract a 12.5 per cent VAT and decided that medicines would be taxed at 4 per cent.
It also set a deadline of May 8 for states to send in their VAT Bills for the Centre
