Service Tax - RAT and SIV
The Kerala Service Tax Department had chalked out measures to track down tax evaders who resort to misdeclarations, suppression of facts and fraud. Addressing a gathering after inaugurating a five-day workshop on Service Tax in Kochi, Mr ASR Nair, Chief Commissioner said the department had initiated strong measures like creation of a Research, Analysis and Technical Unit (RAT) in all Commissionerate headquarters and a Survey, Intelligence and Verification Unit (SIV) in all divisional offices handling Service Tax in the state.
The department would also monitor the performance of officers dealing with Service Tax, audit officers and officers dealing in anti-evasion units and strengthen the vigilance machinery to deal with companies. '' Through these measures the department was aiming to collect around Rs 1,250 Crore of Service Tax revenue during the current fiscal, an increase of 76 per cent compared to last year's collection of Rs 708 crore,'' he noted. The tax collection had not reached the optimum level due to non-registration of taxable service providers, misdeclarations or suppression of facts, lack of awareness, reluctance to pay tax, and failure to account for and deposit the Service Tax collected from the public with the government. Mr Nair said periodical open house meeting and publicity through media would be conducted to educate the taxable service providers and public on the remittance of tax. At present, there were about 20,000 registered taxable service providers in the state but many more were unregistered and yet to come within the tax bracket, he said.