The central excise, customs and service tax, Aurangabad commissionerate has received 1,097 declarations involving service tax of Rs 71 crore under the voluntary compliance encouragement scheme (VCES)-1, which was operative till December 31, 2013. The amount has exceeded the target of around Rs 23 crore.

"The interactive sessions, seminars and powerpoint presentations organized by the department to highlight the benefits of the amnesty scheme yielded results," said Kumar Santosh, commissioner, central excise, customs and service tax, Aurangabad.

Santosh added, "There was great response from the traders and 357 declarations were filed on December 31, last year, the last day of the scheme. Overall the scheme launched by the central government on a pilot basis was a grand success in the Aurangabad commissionerate due to the support from declarants, service providers, and the associations of trade and industries."

"The Union government has introduced VCES-13 in respect of non-filers, stop filers of service tax returns, non-registrants and those who have not truly declared tax liability for the period October 2007 to December 2012," he added.