Aiming to garner higher revenue from indirect taxes, Finance Minister P Chidambaram will address industry bodies at Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai on Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme 2013.

VCES had been introduced with effect from May 10, 2013 as a one time amnesty scheme for paying service tax dues for the period October 1, 2007 to December 31, 2012 without interest and penalty.

"The Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram will address trade/industry/service associations and Chambers of Commerce &Industry at Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai on Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme (VCES) 2013," the Finance Ministry said in a statement today.

The minister will address the representatives of various trade associations and Chambers on VCES in Chennai on November 9, in Delhi on November 11 and in Mumbai on November 14.

The services sector contributes about 65 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product ( GDP) of country but the number of service tax payers is quite less.

Recently, Chidambaram had said that out of the 17 lakh registered assesses under Service tax, only seven lakh were filing returns.

"Many have simply stopped filing returns. We cannot go after each of them. I have to motivate them to file returns and pay the tax dues. Hence, I propose to introduce a one-time scheme called 'Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme'," the Finance Minister had said in his Budget speech.

Government has set indirect tax collection target of Rs 5.65 lakh crore for 2013-14, up from Rs 4.73 lakh crore in the last fiscal.