As usual the last date for filing of Form No. 704 i.e. VAT Audit Report for 2005-06 and 2006-07 is extended to 31st March 2008. Judgment on the same is expected on 22nd February 2008.

The State-level Value Added Tax (hereinafter referred to as ‘Value Added Tax’ or ‘VAT’) comes into effect from April 1, 2005, in place of the sales tax structure prevalent in various States. The VAT intends to bring harmonisation in the tax structure of various States and rationalise the overall tax burden. The essence of VAT is that it provides credit/set-off for input tax, i.e., tax paid on purchases, against the output tax, i.e., tax payable on sales.