Central Excise mentality is not suited for Service Tax – former FM
"Now central excise officials deal in service tax. But the mentality of a central excise officer and service tax official should be different," the former finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, suggested during an interactive session on the Union budget with the members of Bharat Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata. Sinha pointed out that during NDA regime it was proposed that once the service tax achieved a critical mass then a separate set of law and cadre would be created for the tax administration and collection. Sinha said that he was going to raise this issue in the next meeting of the Parliamentary standing committee on finance. "This year the projection for service tax collection is around Rs 23,000 crore, which I feel is good enough to start the move. This is the high time because even a few years back the income tax collection was at the same level where service tax now stands," he said.