Bhubaneswar: May 31: Price of pulses and its derivatives are likely to reduce in the state as Odisha government today decided to decrease Value Added Tax (VAT) on these items from the current 5% to 1% on an experimental basis for a period of three months. After a meeting with Federation of All Odisha Traders’ Association (FAOTA) yesterday Finance Minister Pradip Amat said, ‘VAT on pulses will be reduced from 5% to 1%. It will be implemented for a period of three months only on an experimental basis and further we can take a call on the issue after studying its impact on the state exchequer’. Government is likely to present this before the State Cabinet for its approval.
Notably, Federation of All Odisha Traders’ Association (FAOTA) has been demanding on waiver of VAT on pulses besides few other demands and threatened to go ahead with their protest plan if Government did not fulfil their demand. The traders’ body have been demanding to reduce the VAT on different products as 25 states have exempted VAT on pulses, wheat, and wheat products. They want rather government should impose of unitary tax instead of 5% VAT on these items. The state consumes about 67,000 metric tonne (MT) of pulses and 12,000 MT of wheat products every month. A large chunk of these consumables is imported from other states.
