The city has yielded as much as Rs 480 crore under the Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme (VCES). This far exceeds the expectations of the officials of the service tax department. Yet, there are several more defaulters who have not come forward to avail themselves of the scheme. Denizens have contributed almost up to 10 percent of the revenue generated under the Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme (VCES).

As curtains come down on VCES for those who have never filed their service tax returns, despite registering with the department, officials areall set to attach the properties or the bank accounts of defaulterswho though declared, never made payments.

All those who have collected service tax from their customers but have failed to remit the same to the government will face the consequences, an official said.

Officials feel attaching property or bank accounts is the fastest way to recover the dues from the defaulters. "We have got full power to strictly deal with the defaulters who have not utilised VCES and shied away from to voluntarily disclose their tax liabilities. Those who have collected service tax but pocketed the same shall face arrest for deliberate and criminal evasion of tax", said an official.

Next in the line of fire as per a senior official of the department will be those who have either not bothered to get registered with the department or those who are maintaining fake or parallel bill books.

According to the officials, Hyderabad alone has logged in a record recovery of Rs 480 crores. "This is much more than the expectations pegged at Rs 250 crores for Hyderabad," said an official, adding that this is just the beginning, as the department aims at bringing every 'service provider' for registration and payment of dues.

Meanwhile 'anti evasion teams' constituted to collected intelligence and nab those indulging in non-payment of evading service tax have reportedly gathered loads of information about the defaulters.

"The service tax defaulters who have been evading payments and have not bothered to avail VCES, should watch out", said the official, adding that there would be no such amnesty scheme in the next two decades. A similar amnesty scheme was launched in 1997.

Maximum recovery of tax dues came from construction sector and IT related services. Theatre owners, exhibitors and builders are amongst the major defaulters of service tax as per the officials who disclosed that all the service providing sectors are being issued summons for depositing the service tax including media houses, sub-contractors, entertainment industry and cosmetic and slimming clinics etc.