New Delhi: Finance Minister Jaswant Singh has called off the meeting with empowered committee on value-added tax (VAT), scheduled for May 6.

The meeting between Singh and committee chairman Asim Dasgupta was cancelled because of Rajya Sabha taking up the Finance Bill on May 6, official sources said.

Dasgupta, also the West Bengal Finance Minister, was supposed to meet Singh before taking a final decision on the implementation of VAT from June as almost 16 states, covering over 75 per cent of India's trade and manufacturing, had agreed to switch-over to the new tax regime, replacing the sales tax.

The committee is likely to apprise the Centre of actions taken by it for VAT introduction, as Singh had made it clear in Parliament that the implementation of VAT in a "patch-work" fashion could not be done and asked the states to complete the "groundwork".

Official sources said the "groundwork" has been done and the committee would press for President's assent to the VAT Bills of at least nine major states by May 25, so that they can go ahead with VAT by June.

PTI