Odisha govt, traders’ meet to resolve VAT row deferred

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Mar 29:

The high-level meeting between Odisha government and representatives of traders’ body to resolve the controversy over value added tax (VAT) exemption scheduled for today has been deferred to tomorrow.

Pic Courtesy: alamy.com

Earlier on Saturday, the meeting between the state government and the members of Federation of All Odisha Traders’ Association (FAOTA) held at the state secretariat here ended inconclusively and was scheduled to meet again today.

However, the meeting has been rescheduled to tomorrow, sources said.

Notably, the Federation has threatened to stop the import of essential commodities from other states from April 1 protesting against 5% value added tax (VAT) imposed on these items by the state government. The traders’ body has been demanding imposition of unitary tax instead of 5% VAT on food items since long.