Come January 1 and thousands of service tax defaulters who have not
bothered to avail of the one time Voluntary Compliance Encouragement
Scheme (VCES) are likely to be arrested. VCES is an amnesty scheme for
those who have never filed their service tax returns as well as those
who have stopped doing so. Launched by finance minister P Chidambaram,
the scheme gives benefits like waiver of interest and fine on tax dues
to the defaulters who come forward to pay up.
Highly-placed sources told TOI that the Hyderabad zone of the
service tax department has got a 'green signal' from the finance
ministry to launch the strictest action against defaulters, including
arrest and immediate recovery of the money by attaching property or bank
accounts.
Meanwhile, the department is leaving no stone unturned to give wide
publicity to the scheme slated to end on December 31. Apart from putting
up kiosks, mobile teams have been formed to reach various corners of
the city in the next two weeks to persuade people to pay the tax.
Officials are reportedly working even on weekends. However, sources
revealed that the response is still lukewarm despite the closure date
being barely 10 days away. "At present, the department is getting one or
two odd cases of VCES per day," said an official, adding that recently a
leading regional language TV channel paid Rs 80 lakh dues after being
issued summons.
Ahead of the massive crackdown, the service tax wing of the Central
Board of Excise and Customs has constituted teams to persuade defaulters
to file returns. "In the recent past, we were forced to arrest some
defaulters in construction, multimedia companies and security agencies.
We found that they were not depositing the service tax collected from
customers with the department. These are the cases of deliberate and
criminal evasion. Apart from such evaders, there are thousands who are
yet to get registered with the department while scores have stopped
filing their service tax returns," a senior official said.
Link: http://www.cainindia.org/news/12_2013/service_tax_defaulters_to_face_arrest_from_january_1.html
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