With West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta determined to lead the states into a VAT regime on April 1, the Federation of West Bengal Trade Associations is also gearing to spearhead the agitations against the move. It has marked the calendar with an all-Bengal hunger strike on March 17, followed a 72-hour all-India Trade Bandh on March 30 and 31, as well as April 1.Federation spokesman, Mahesh Kumar Singhania reiterated the traders’ objection to the imposition of VAT, especially in combination with CST and other taxes such as service tax, withdrawal tax and FBT.While much has been said about the Centre’s committment to compensate losses that the states may suffer on VAT’s imposition, Singhania contends that it is all an eyewash. ‘‘The states will only gain on revenue,’’ he argues. To underscore this, he points to the shrinking of the list of exempted items to a mere 46. The list was far bigger under the sales tax regime, he urges. What is more annoying for the traders is that with state governments (including West Bengal) yet to pass their revised VAT Act (incorporating the 20 points of convergence put out by the white paper), the traders are completely in the dark about what will be on the final exempted list and what will not.While Dasgupta has been saying VAT would actually cut down production costs, Singhania dismissed this possibility. ‘‘Most industrial inputs are picked up at 3 per cent ‘single point’ sales tax,’’ he informed.
