PAC for action against tax amnesty beneficiary-turned-evaders

The Public Accounts Committee wants action against people who had availed service tax amnesty scheme in 2013 but never filed any taxes thereafter.
The suggestion has been made after the PAC examined the CAG report on service tax compliance scheme of 2013.
The PAC, according to sources, has held discussions with the officials of the revenue department with regard to the CAG's performance audit report on the Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme (VCES), 2013.
The committee is likely to seek legal opinion so that action can be taken against those who availed the scheme but became non-filers thereafter, sources said, adding the PAC will submit its report by April-end.

The government had come out with the amnesty scheme VCES for service tax evaders. It granted them immunity for truthful declaration of service tax dues and allowed a defaulter to pay dues without any penalty or late payment charges.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report last month had pulled up the revenue department for its failure to take stringent action against assessees who took advantage of the immunity provisions under the service tax compliance scheme and again became non-filers.

The CAG had said such schemes should be followed by an extensive investigation drive to bring evaders under tax net.

In its discussion with the revenue department officers, the PAC sought to know whether the department has put in place a monitoring mechanism to ensure compliance to statutory provisions by the declarants who availed benefits of VCES.
It also sought to know from the officials that since the scheme had no time-limit for furnishing of payment details, whether some cases are still pending for closure.
The PAC also sought to know how tax officials ensure that declarations made under VCES are truthful and whether the monitoring system has been put in place to ensure voluntary declarants do not become defaulters again.

The PAC, under chairmanship of Congress leader K V Thomas, is a committee of select members of Parliament for auditing of the revenue and expenditure of the central government.
The PAC examines CAG reports and also calls senior officials related to the ministry or government office which is under its scrutiny as witnesses to assist the panel.