The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India recently organized a half-day seminar on service tax where former president and region council member of WIRC Julfesh Shah was the chief guest.

In his speech, he said there were many things which needed clarification in the Service Tax Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme-2013, including negative list of service and reverse charges mechanism.

"The new scheme launched by government needs thorough study by the professionals so that they can guide their clients in more effective manner," he said. He also updated the members on various developments at ICAI level regarding bank audit, cooperative audit and other issues.

Earlier, Swapnil Agrawal, chairman of Nagpur Branch stated that Service Tax was an emerging area of practice for chartered accountants. "In recent past many changes have been done by the government in indirect taxes. Concept of negative list has covered more assesses in the Service Tax net. Also, Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme needs thorough understanding so that maximum benefit can be availed by our clients,"he said.

In first technical session, an expert in indirect taxes and eminent faculty Amit Kumar Agrawal presented a paper on "Service Tax Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme" and stressed that its provisions needed a re-look and is required to be made more assessee-friendly rather than defaulter friendly.