Traditionally physical control over goods was the essence of indirect taxes but it has gone under sea change remarked Shri Yogesh Kumar Agrawal, Additional Commissioner, Central Excise & Customs, Nagpur at an Interactive meet organized by Nagpur Branch of WIRC at ICAI Bhavan, Dhantoli. He further said that like income tax, in service tax also self assessment is allowed now but at the same time audit is conducted by the department to ensure there is no leakage of revenue. He opined that with the introduction of GST, collection of Indirect Taxes will surpass Direct Tax revenue collection. Also there will be single code for payment of taxes on goods & services, he added. He further informed that with the reorganization of Central Excise, all assessee’s will have new location code. He further said that procedural simplification of Service Tax is on cards to make the department assessee friendly. He asked the members of CA profession to keep themselves update with new information and knowledge and also inform their clients accordingly. He further said that quality control mechanism is of world class standard at ICAI and he is impressed with learning activities organized by Nagpur Branch.

Earlier CA. Ashwini Agrawal, Chairman of the Branch in his welcome address said that the Service sector in India has witnessed rapid growth in the past decade and it currently contributes to about 66% of total GDP and provides employment to about 27% of the work force. He further said that Service Tax is one of the major revenue source of Government now and the Finance Act, 2012 had made significant changes in it by shifting the basis of applicability of Service Tax from positive approach to negative approach. Under new method, all services, other than services specified in the negative list, provided or agreed to be provided in the taxable territory by a person to another would be taxed, he added. He further said that to cope up with these emerging challenges in the area of service tax, the Indirect Taxes Committee of the ICAI and Nagpur Branch has organised 4 Days Programme on “Enabling Service Tax Practice”. The Programme has been designed to cover all important aspects of Service Tax, He added. With introduction of Goods and Services Tax, our members can play lead role and assist the Government in implementing the new tax regime, he opined.

He further informed about various practical and procedural difficulties being faced by Members and assessee’s at Central Excise & Customs and requested department to resolve it at the earliest. He said that multiple investigations are being carried out by the department causing difficulties for the assessee and department should centralize the investigations. He also informed that in case of export of service, payment of refunds are delayed beyond stipulated period in-spite of orders from competent authorities and requested to expedite the refund process.

The programme was coordinated by CA. Sandeep Jotwani, Treasurer, CA. Suren Duragkar introduced the Chief Guest & CA. Kirti Agrawal, Vice Chairperson proposed formal vote of thanks. Also present on occasion were CA. Umang Agrawal, CA. Kirit Kalyani, CA. Amit Agrawal, CA. Hemant Rajandekar, CA. Varun Vijaywargi, CA. P.C. Sarda, CA. M.B. Kataria, CA. Deepak Agrawal, CA. Manoj Agrawal, CA. Sandeep Agrawal, CA. Ajay Singh, CA. Richa Jain, CA. Namrata Nimodia, CA. Radha Sarda & more than 100 Chartered Accountants.