Delhi defers uniform sales tax

Delhi defers uniform sales tax
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, DEC 31: A day before implementation of uniform sales tax, Delhi government today decided to defer its application in the capital saying the matter deserves more scrutiny.

"There is merit in what the city traders are saying. Delhi is pre-eminently a trading centre unlike other industrial and Agrarian states and therefore all implications of uniform sales tax need to be studied," Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit told reporters.

She said an emergency meeting of the cabinet today decided to represent its position before the Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha with "more facts and figures" adding the Delhi government will make its position known in detail at the meeting of state finance ministers' steering committee on January 10.

Dikshit said a sub-committee of state cabinet headed by finance Minister M S Saathi and comprising development minister Yoganand Shastri and industry minister Narender Nath has been constituted to pursue the matter with the centre.

To a question about closure ofpolluting industries, the deadline for which as set by Supreme Court ends today, Dikshit said "while we have to implement court orders, we will also not like to indiscriminately close the industries without giving them a chance".