Which one of the following is not a feature of "Value Added Tax”?

D is the correct answer because it is the false statement. VAT was never a Central subject. In India, VAT on sales of goods was a State subject, levied and collected by state governments under their own VAT Acts from 2005, replacing the old sales tax. The Centre's role was limited to the Central Sales Tax on inter-state sales, which Parliament legislated but states collected. So the states were the taxing authorities, not mere facilitators.

The other options are features of VAT. A is correct: VAT is levied at multiple points in the chain, and in design it is destination-based, so the tax accrues to the state where goods are consumed. B is the textbook definition: tax on value added at each stage, with credit for tax paid on inputs. C is also correct: VAT is a consumption-type tax, economically borne by the final consumer, since intermediate businesses pass it on through input credit.

Concept: input tax credit and the consumption-type design of indirect taxes. Mains connection: GS-III and Centre-State fiscal relations, including the shift to GST under the 101st Amendment in 2017, which replaced most state VATs with a dual GST.

Trap: students remember VAT as a state tax and then wrongly accept D because CST was a Central Act. Read the statement closely: the question asks for the feature that does not belong.