Saturday, April 9 2005 15:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Traders today (Apr 9, 2005) refused to give up their agitation against Value-added Tax (VAT) as asked by the Finance Minister unless they were invited for talks on the issue by Chidambaram.

They also demanded an audience with President A P J Abdul Kalam to "apprise him of lacunae" in VAT legislations formulated by the States.

In Mumbai, Chidambaram had yesterday (Apr 8, 2005) requested traders to give up their protest against VAT since "it is an effective tax mechanism."

"If the Finance Minister is really serious on the issue, then instead of making public statements, concrete efforts must be made to invite traders for talks across the table," Confederation of All India Traders General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal said.

Khandelwal also claimed the Centre was keeping the "President in the dark while seeking his assent on State VAT legislations by not informing him the about the facts".

He said the Empowered Committee had issued a 21 point convergence list and made it mandatory for each State to include all such points in VAT legislations of their respective States.

It was also agreed upon in the committee that all VAT legislations would be screened at the Centre's level prior to sending them for Presidential assent to ensure that all points of the list are duly incorporated in the bills, Khandelwal said.

The basic objective of 'uniformity' as envisaged in convergence list, has been defeated by ''vast differences" in tax rate schedules fees, he added.