New Delhi: Traders today (July 14, 2004) threatened to launch a nation-wide agitation if their apprehensions regarding Value-added Tax were not taken care of by August 15.

Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) have sought appointments with the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister to put forward their concerns on the new tax regime slated to be implemented in April 2005.

"Government did not consult us before announcing the date of VAT implementation and they should listen to us by August 15, failing which we will launch a nationwide campaign until our demands are met," CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said, addressing the traders gathered in New Delhi from across the country.

Outlining their list of demands, he said, "there should be uniformity in VAT rates across the country, and there should be no other local tax along with VAT."

CAIT also demanded tax holiday to small traders and said there should not be discretionary power to the authorities to penalise traders unnecessarily. "We will seek appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Chairman of Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers Asim Dasgupta to incorporate our demands in the proposed law which is not acceptable to us in the present form" he said.

Traders had staged a nationwide strike last year (2002-2003), when VAT was slated to be implemented. Most states backtracked on VAT following the agitation of traders, fearing an adverse impact during general elections. Now that the elections are over, States have geared up to implement VAT from April 2005.