There will be, it has been announced, a shift from the current system of commodity taxation at the state level to value added taxation from April this year. This paper considers whether what is planned for implementation is in consonance with the core concepts of (destination-based) value added taxation and assesses the extent to which the present intiatives will lay a sound foundation for eventual modernisation of the indirect tax structure at the state level. The study has been made from the perspective of the existing commodity tax structure of Karnataka.
