Film industry associations to educate members about service tax

After the service tax department slapped notices of various filmmakers like Samir Karnik, Anurag Kashyap and actor Sunny Deol, the film industry associations have decided to hold a seminar next week to educate their members on the consequences of defaulting to pay service tax. Some members from the service tax department will also be attending the meeting.
Kulmeet Makkar, CEO of Film and Television Producers Guild, who met the service tax commissioner earlier this week, said that department is not going to spare any defaulter and there is a mandate received by the department from the centre to go all out to recover service tax from production houses.
The department has also observed that the service tax payments which have been collected by production houses however have not been deposited to the government.
Makkar added, "The department is willing to offer the Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme to support the industry in case any defaulting member is not in the position to make payments immediately.’’
The Guild has also requested the commissioner to hold further action. Makkar said, "The commissioner's response was not negative when I requested him to hold back further actions. He seems keen to work with the industry to educate the industry. Service tax mechanism is very complex hence needs greater understanding. There is no list of defaulters but the department has list of films against which they may be checking the status of payment.’’
Celebs who failed to pay service tax
The service tax department has frozen the bank accounts of film director Anurag Kashyap for his failure to pay not paying Rs 55 lakh service tax. Kashyap owed Rs 70 lakh, of which he has paid Rs 15 lakh.
Actor Sunny Deol too is an accused in the case but he paid Rs 86 lakh out of the Rs 1.95 crore tax demand against his firm.
Film producer Samir Karnik was held for evading Rs 1.18 crore in service tax.