Two senior executives arrested for nonpayment of service tax

Two top executives, including the Managing Director of a security service agency, have been arrested here by the Anti-Evasion wing of Service Tax Commissionerate for non-payment of the tax collected by them from their customers.
Axis Fortification Pvt Ltd Managing Director Pramod Mishra and Spectrum Consultants India Pvt Ltd Director Sharad Dhawan were arrested here yesterday and produced before the Special Court for Economic Offences, which remanded both to judicial custody.
Axis Fortification, providing security agency service, had failed to remit the Service Tax of Rs 3.47 crore collected by them from 2009 till date.
In the other case, Spectrum Consultants engaged in manpower recruitment or supply agency services had failed to deposit with exchequer Service Tax of Rs 2.41 crore collected from 2011 till date, Service Tax Commissioner Sanjay Pant said.

Both Axis and Spectrum had applied for amnesty under the Service Tax Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme announced in the 2013 Union budget but failed to pay the first instalment of 50 per cent of the total service tax dues by the prescribed date of December 31, 2013, Pant said in a statement.
They continued to default in paying service tax for the subsequent period also, he added.
The action is in line with the Finance Ministry directive to be stringent against the defaulters of service tax, he said.
The Service Tax Commissionerate here had made two arrests earlier for similar offences.