The BJP on Tuesday went into a huddle with finance ministers of BJP-ruled states in order to firm up positions before a meeting of the empowered group of finance ministers on Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The meeting lasted for two hours and was held at the party?s parliamentary party chairperson L K Advani?s residence at Prithviraj Road. The party was concerned with the proposal to withdraw a 10 year tax holiday for the hill states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand three years before schedule and that state governments would stick to their earlier stated positions, sources said.

?As a party we have not take a line on the matter, but the onus of drawing a consensus remains with the Centre,? said a source. ?We also feel that the Centre should incentivise the states a lot more than it is ready to do at present before there is a consensus on GST,? said

the source. Madhya Pradesh has been anti-GST in its stance and it along with Tamil Nadu, ruled by the DMK have been at the vanguard of attempts to block out the April 2011 rollout of the system. MP chief minister has stated that the GST compensation amount should be fixed only after the tax rates are decided.