Soon, software to check status of service tax reaching govt

Do you know what happens to the service tax you pay to the shopkeepers? The Delhi government is going to introduce a software soon by which you can check whether service tax charged on your purchases has been deposited to the government account or not. Under the project, every shop will be directly linked to Value Added Tax (VAT) department and each entry will be updated online. 

“People pay service tax on their purchases to traders but this service tax goes into their pockets. They delete the data and do not deposit the service tax paid by customers,” said Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister who also holds the charge of Finance Department in Delhi Assembly while presenting the VAT Amendment Act 2016 in the House. 

“As a huge fraction of the tax collected from the public is not submitted in government accounts, the government has to increase the tax rate to manage the revenue,” he added. Sisodia claimed that after introduction of the system, black money use will also be checked in the market and hard-earned money deposited by Delhiites will reach the government exchequer. 

As per the proposal, the new software will link all shops in the city with the VAT department online. “As soon as a shop-keeper will enter the data in his computers/electronics machine to generate the bill, the entire data will immediately be updated on VAT department portal. The customer can also check his bill details at any time on the website of the VAT department which will also show status of service tax deposited into the government account,” explained Sisodia. 

He further added that another scheme of the VAT department — Bill Banao, Inam Pao, has become very popular among customers and they now insist on bill for their purchases. The VAT department has been able to trace and prosecute several traders who were doing business without proper documentation. 

“Several black-listed companies and traders were also identified and prosecuted through this scheme,” added Sisodia. The VAT department aims to contain a huge amount of “black money” in the market which is generated by traders by fudging data of sale and purchases and stealing service tax. 

Sisodia also informed that the bill has received prior approval of Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and there will be no hurdle in its implementation.