The Chamber of Marathwada Industries and Agriculture (CMIA) organized an interactive seminar on service tax jointly with the office of the Commissioner Central Excise and Customs and Service Tax here on Saturday.

The seminar was aimed at imparting basic knowledge in service tax especially in view of the recent changes which have taken place in the service tax law.

CMIA is supported by the Marathwada Association of Small Scale Industries and Agriculture (MASSIA) and Aurangabad Zilla Vyapari Mahasagha (AJVM).

CMIA representative Abhay Kolte presented the issues/suggestions related to service tax and the Aurangabad commissionerate answered queries raised by industries

The seminar aimed at facilitating assessees and trade by creating awareness on the new provision of service tax. Central excise, customs and service tax commissioner Kumar Santosh said the commissionerate has implemented 'SEVOTTAM', a single window system based on the BIS standard, IS-15700:2005, to help all stakeholders. "Basically, defined services will be provided in a time-bound manner. The commissionerate will take forward suggestions made by the industries to the central government," he said.

Additional commissioner Dinesh Pangarkar explained the modalities of filing online service tax returns. He also explained the difficulties faced by the department while assessing returns and appealed to assessees to exercise caution while filing returns. He also explained the penal provisions of service tax and the rules. He appealed to the industries and trade fraternity to comply with the service tax provisions which have been made effective from July 8 this year.

Additional commissioners S P Mishra, R V Prathamesh and Chunaram also interacted with the participants. Other officials of the Aurangabad commissionerate, central excise, customs and service tax were present for the seminar.

CMIA president Sunil Raithatha, former president Mukund Kulkarni, vice-president Milind Kank, secretary Munish Sharma and executive committee member Saurabh Bhogale, representatives of Vinodrai Engineering, Yeshshree Group of Companies, Rucha Group of Companies, MAHYCO, Sab Miller, Grind Master, LUPIN, Sterlite, Wipro, Aurangabad Electrical, Marathwada Auto Compo, Atra Pharmaceuticals, Savera Pharmaceuticals, Ajanta Pharma, CIPET, Garware, Harman Phinochem and LAPL Automation were present.