The empowered committee on value-added tax will meet the finance minister in mid-July to discuss the 'roadmap' for the introduction of the new tax regime, after which it will be taken up with political parties for a national consensus.

"The committee will be meeting in the middle of July. We will meet the finance minister also," VAT panel chairman Asim Dasgupta said in New Delhi on Thursday.

After the meeting, he said the committee will meet major political parties for a nationwide consensus.

"Some of the members of the empowered committee will be there," Dasgupta, also the West Bengal finance minister, said.

He was non-committal on whether VAT could be implemented during this fiscal year. The contentious VAT has already missed the June 1 deadline.

About 11 states, which were earlier prepared to implement VAT from June 1, could not do so as Finance Minister Jaswant Singh opposed a 'patchwork' implementation without all states fully prepared for it.

The central government intends to consult the main political parties and VAT panel for coming up with the new progressive tax system, whose introduction was deferred more than three times since 2001.