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All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), the organisation of goods transport operators and goods transport agencies, has given the call for an indefinite transport strike nationwide from July 2 in support of several demands, the most important being the issue of service tax. It might be interesting to note that the Government’s bid to bring road transport operators and the transport agencies under the purview of the service tax always faced some hurdles. The servi ce tax was introduced in 1994-95 on services like communication and courier services and others, but the first move to introduce it for goods transport sector was made in 1997-98. But the move did not succeed as the goods transport companies observed nationwide strike against it. In 2004, the Government made a fresh attempt, which again did not succeed. Instead, an expert committee was formed to recommend the modalities of levying service tax on road transportation of goods booked through the agencies, keeping the truckers out of the purview. Subsequently from January 2005, service tax on goods transport agencies came into force although there were lot of anomalies in the enforcement. Now the tax department has slapped recovery notices after detecting the anomalies. The loss of the revenue due to under-recoveries so far is estimated at several hundred crores of rupees all over the country.

More Stories on : Taxation | Roadways

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