Compliance- major issue concerning service tax
10 Jan 2005
Mumbai:
At a workshop, 'Service Tax: Overview and Issues' organised
by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in Mumbai,
K P Singh, director general, directorate of service
tax revealed that service sector contributed about 56
percent of GDP in India while emphasising the importance
of service tax.
Addressing
some key issues concerning service tax, Singh said,
" Numerous instances have come to notice that despite
recovering service tax from service receivers the service
providers are not depositing it with the government."
He emphasised that before releasing the payments wherever
any taxable services are received by the companies proper
service tax registration number, service tax code and
accounting code be specified in the invoices received
from the service providers.
Singh
said that payment of service tax has not matured in
the country and that the government is trying its best
to improve it. In order to solve the problem the government
has introduced e-payment for easy settlement of deals.
Singh said his department would provide full support
to execute smooth implementation of service tax.
Gaurav Nanavaty, chairman, 'CII western region' and
managing director, Anup Industries said, "Service
sector is growing at a phenomenal rate all over the
world, though it may vary in degree and magnitude among
the various countries. In developing economies, this
sector is steadily growing in size. The rates of taxes
on commodities need downward revision in view of the
development all over the world, particularly the ASEAN
region. The only way to achieve this is to include more
services in the service tax."
Banmali Agrawala, chairman, CII 'Maharashtra state council'
and managing director, Wartsila India said, "CII
would like to engage in a dialogue with the government
in order to resolve the issues faced by the industry.
" He said that the industry needed to discharge
its obligation completely.
Other speakers included Sachin Menon, Partner, Ernst & Young,. Bhavna Doshi, of Bharat S Raut & Co advocate V Sridharan, and Nihal Kothari, head, taxation, Hindustan Lever Ltd.