Value Added Tax: Experiences of India and Other Countries

Value Added Tax (VAT) has emerged as one of the most important fiscal innovations of the present century. As many as 90 countries have switched over to VAT during the last decade and a half bringing the total number of VAT countries to more than 141. India has adopted a system of dual VAT: Cen VAT at the federal level and state-VAT at the state level. Haryana was the first state to replace its sales tax by VAT on April 1, 2003. Majority of states (18 states) introduced VAT on April 1, 2005. Since then all other states have switched overt o VAT leaving only Uttar Pradesh out of it. In this context, this book presents evolution of VAT, analyses its rationale and brings out the reasons for its popularity as a fiscal measure. In the Indian context, it presents up-to-date developments in introduction of VAT by the Union and by all the states.The coverage includes an in-depth analysis of the rates, base exemptions, taxation of services and harmonization of tax rates. Due emphasis is given to organization for tax administration, operations of VAT in India and other countries and to the MIS for tax administration. Special emphasis is laid on Tax Information Exchange System (TINXSYS) of India for having information on dealers entering into inter-state trade. The book presents an extremely informative account of the management of VAT in France (especially of the forfeit system for small dealers), GST in Canada, and federal and state VAT in Brazil. In the light of the experiences of all the VAT countries, the study aims at drawing attention towards the key issues in implementation of VAT.