Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said here on Tuesday that Goods and Services Tax (GST) would be implemented from April 1, 2012. We wanted to introduce it earlier, but due to some problems in implementation of the new indirect tax system, constitutional amendments are needed to levy it in states, he said.

The finance minister said the Centre would take into account the concerns of the states and work towards forging a common ground for implementation of the major tax reform. The GST aims to dismantle the complexities and non-transparency in tax regime for goods and services. It encourages a consumer-friendly product pricing that should benefit the common man, he said.

While VAT brought a steady increase in the revenues of the states, were now moving towards an economy-wide generalised system of GST, which is likely to improve tax collections and boost Indias economic development by integrating the Indian market through a uniform tax rate, he said.

Mukherjee said the discussion organised by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) would be benefitted from the participation of the auditors, who in turn would have some watchdog responsibility of seeing the implementation of the agreed tax reforms.

Centre has launched a project for computerisation of commercial tax administration of states and proposal for 31 states have been sanctioned with an overall cost of R975 crore about 70% of it would be borne by the Centre, he said.