Talwalkars owner arrested for evading Rs 3-cr service tax dues

Talwalkars gym owner Rohit Talwalkar has been arrested for evading service tax payment of Rs three crore since September 2008.
"We have arrested Rohit Talwalkar, Director of Talwalkars Fitness Solution Private Limited (TFSPL)," Sushil Solanki, Commissioner of Service Tax said today.
After his arrest yesterday, a local court today remanded him to judicial custody till January 29.
Sources in the Service Tax department said that TFSPL, which is in existence since 1932 and is frequented by Bollywood and television personalities, was engaged in providing health and fitness service in 12 cities like Mumbai, Nashik, Panvel, Ahmedabad etc.
"They have been collecting service tax as part of their charges but did not remit to the department since September 2008," said a source.

According to officials, TFSPL filed a declaration under Voluntary Compliance Encouragement (VCES) scheme, introduced by the government under which they had to pay 50 per cent of the liability before December 31, 2013.
"However they did not comply with the requisites under the scheme," said a source.
The action taken by the department is in line with government policy, whereby government had announced VCES Scheme to pay all dues, but in spite of the said scheme, the tax payers are not coming clean.