Various central taxes including excise, VAT, and services tax are proposed to be merged in the goods and services tax, GST. This will make it easier for business and industry. A discussion paper on Goods and Services Tax was released in New Delhi by the Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers and Finance Minister of West Bengal, Mr. Asim Dasgupta yesterday. It also proposes to subsume other taxes like additional customers duty. Talking to reporters in after the release of the discussion paper the Union Finance minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee said that it will redistribute the burden of taxation equitably between manufacturing and services, bringing about quality change in the tax system. Mr. Asim Dasguta said Briefing reporters, there will be two kinds of GSTs , one at the central level and other at the state level. He, however, said that alcohol and petroleum products will not be covered under the GST. The Empowered Committee will start discussions with traders and entrepreneurs from this evening itself in a bid to have consensus among all the stake holders in the country. Highly placed sources said the Central proposal to implement the GST by the first of April next year may not materialize due to sharp differences among various states and the Center on the revenue losses. Though the Centrex may bring a bill in the coming winter session of Parliament, the sources said it will take some more time to implement the Indian model of GST as states will wait for the Central Finance Commission to come up with its recommendations regarding compensating their losses.