Service Tax Evasion Case Booked by Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) Against M/S Shiv Vani Oil and Gas Exploration Services Ltd. and Sub- Contractors of L&T; Total Evasion of Service Tax Estimated at More than Rs. 300 Crore

On the basis of aspecific information, officers of the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (Hqrs), New Delhi have recently booked a case of service tax evasion against M/s Shiv Vani Oil and Gas Exploration Services Ltd. situated at NBCC Plaza, Sector-V, Pushp Vihar, Saket, New Delhi. They are engaged in the business of providing services related to exploration and exploitation of Oil and Gas and their main clients are ONGC and Oil India Ltd. They admitted that due to financial constraints, they had not deposited service tax to the govt. exchequer.

The estimated evasion of service tax is more than Rs. 200 crore.

Service Tax Evasion by Sub- Contractors of L&T

Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence, (Hqrs), New Delhi has booked a case of service tax evasion against sub- contractors of L&T. Acting on a specific intelligence by the officers of DGCEI(Hqrs), New Delhi which indicated evasion of service tax on work contract service/construction services by several sub- contractors of M/s Larsen & Toubro construction, Chennai, searches were conducted on at various places including Construction division of M/s Larsen & Toubro at Chennai and premises of one of its sub- contractor group companies namely M/s Chitra Builders Pvt Ltd (CBPL) Kolkata, M/s Coastal Infratech Pvt. Ltd (CPIL), M/s Pratik International Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (PIIPL), Kolkata, M/s Coastal Infra(CI), Coimbatore, M/s Pratik Associates(PA), Bhuvneshwar and M/s Chitra Construction Company(CCC), situated at Chennai, Coimbatore and Kolkata.

The intelligence indicated that several contractors are empanelled with M/s L&T Construction (ECC division), Chennai who receive ‘work orders” for different projects of M/s L&T by way of sub-contracting. It further indicated that the sub-contractors are indulging in the evasion of service tax as they are receiving the applicable amount of service tax form M/s L&T, but are not depositing the same with the government account properly. The sub-contractor companies are also not filing ST- 3 returns in a regular manner. Most of the sub- contractor companies are manipulating the details of work orders and job contract values and amount of service tax amount in their records.

Total evasion of service tax by the sub-contractors of M/s L&T is estimated to be around Rs 100 crore.

DSM/RS/ka

(Release ID :94461)