As the Mangalore Central Excise Commissionerate readies itself for the Central Excise Day that is being celebrated on Monday, the officers of its preventive and special intelligence and investigation team have unearthed central excise duty and service tax evasion of Rs 46.84 crore in 56 cases till January 2013. The detection of tax evasion is the result of intensified survey and intelligence gathering.

The commissionerate from the above mentioned cases of tax evasion has recovered Rs 9.69-crore, MVS Choudary, commissioner said. The modus operandi operated by the tax evaders included collection of service tax from their clients but not declaring the same and paying it to the department, and rendering of taxable service without obtaining registration and payment of service tax, he said adding it was intelligence which helped nail the evaders.

The chairperson of the Central Board of Excise and Customs, New Delhi and the chief commissioner of central excise, Mysore zone, Mysore has appreciated and commended the efforts made by the officers of the team in detecting the cases. Chaudary urged people to furnish credible information on central excise duty and service tax so as to enable the department initiate suitable action to recover the dues owed to the Union government.

Noting that the identity of such informers will be kept confidential and them suitably rewarded, Chaudary said, in one such case of credible information furnished, the department awarded Rs 60 lakh to the informer during the current financial year. The audit team also detected short levy of central excise duty and service tax amounting to Rs 11.91 crore during the current financial year till January, out of which Rs 2.81 crore has been recovered.

The commissionerate as on March 31, 2013 is set to achieve the collection of central excise duty amounting to Rs 3,200 crore and Rs 450 crore service tax. If achieved, this will amount to 20.45% more collection in service tax compared to tax collected during 2011-12. The top three contributors to central excise in the commissionerate are ONGC-MRPL, KIOCL and Campco Ltd and top three service tax payers are Corporation Bank, Syndicate and NMPT.