Maha govt warns service tax evaders

Says the tax defaulters will be "hit hard" if they failed to pay their dues

The Central Government has advised service tax evaders to take benefit of its amnesty scheme to avoid harsh action against them.

The tax defaulters will be "hit hard" if they failed to pay their dues, Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose today said.

The Finance Minister, P Chidambaram, in the Budget introduced the Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme (VCES) to motivate service tax assesses who had not filed returns or stopped filing returns, and not paid service tax dues from October 2007 to March 31, 2012. "There is no target for VCES but the department has so far received more than 1,000 applications. The assessees have been given the option of paying the dues in instalments by December 2013," he said here.

Last year, the Government collected Rs 1,24,000 crore in service tax and this fiscal the target has been set at Rs 1,81,000 crore, Bose told reporters.

The Revenue Secretary said the Centre has undertaken an exercise to enlighten the tax assessees on VCES.

As part of this exercise, Bose interacted with a group of members of the business community and trade organisations, chartered accountants and manufacturing houses here.