Rajasthan govt says new VAT not applicable on essential food items

A day after hiking value added tax by one per cent in the Budget, the Rajasthan government today announced that the new VAT rate would not be imposed on essential food commodities such as wheat, rice and sugar.     The state government had yesterday in the Budget 2011 proposed to hike VAT rate to 5% from 4% that would come into effect from April.In an official statement issued here, the state government said that the higher VAT rate of 5% would not be imposed on essential food commodities, including wheat, rice, husk, sorgham, sugar and oilseeds such as mustard, ground nut, seasame, soyabean etc.     It added that the new VAT rate would also not levied on cotton, coal, iron, steel, cotton thread, leather, and jute.     On these items 4% VAT would continue as per the Rajasthan VAT Act's Schedule 4, the release said.     The chief minister Ashok Gehlot has signed the government order to this effect, the release said.      Immediately taking a cognizance of the order, BJP deputy leader Ghanshyam Tiwari raised this issue in the Assembly alleging that the chief minister had committed a breach of privilege by issuing the order outside the House.      Joining BJP's protest, the CPI-M member Pemaram said that issuing such an order was an insult of the House, demanded to know why this was not told yesterday in the Budget speech by the chief minister.     The chairperson of the House Surendra Singh Jadawat said he would give his ruling after studying the matter as raised by the opposition BJP and CPI-M members.