VAT: Traders to gherao Parliament

A day after empowered committee of state finance ministers expressed its determination to implement VAT from April1, traders on Tuesday said they will "gherao" Parliament on Wednesday in protest against the new "inflationary" tax system.

In the second round of their protests, traders will organise a nationwide bandh from March 29 to April 1, Akhil Bhartiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal chairman Sandip Bansal said in New Delhi.

He said VAT would increase prices, impacting the common man. Traders will not be able to keep records for the purpose of calculating VAT, he said.

Alleging that the Congress has changed its stand on VAT after coming to power, Bansal said traders would boycott Congress MPs in their constituencies if the new tax system is introduced.

He also charged BJP for not having any firm stand on the issue of introduction of VAT. To woo traders, the empowered committee chairman Asim Dasgupta had on Monday announced that penal provisions in the state VAT acts will not be introduced for six months, after which they will be reviewed.

He also said some flexibility would be given in the threshold limit of turnover for levying VAT.

Referring to the relaxed threshold turnover limit for traders at Rs 5-50 lakh, it was further clarified that the limit would be based on the taxable turnover and not the gross amount.