Panaji (Goa): The Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) of India has slammed the Goa Tourism Department for failing to claim the Central Value Added Tax (CENVAT) while filing the service tax returns as it ultimately missed a refund of Rs 1.40 crore.
The department had not filed service tax returns up to year 2013-14 and on receipt of notice from the Central Excise Department (April 2015), it filed the half yearly returns for the year 2014-15 in April 2015. The half yearly returns for the year 2015-16 were filed in October 2015 and June 2016. “The DoT however did not claim CENVAT credit aggregating to Rs 8.72 crore in the respective years,” the audit report said adding, “The DoT paid service tax totaling Rs 5.15 crore to various service providers for the input services availed. It also remitted Rs 1.40 crore towards service tax collected by it for providing services. The DoT however did not avail the CENVAT credit while submitting return thereby forgoing Rs 1.40 crore refund.”
The credit if availed could have been eligible for adjustment of Rs 1.40 crore of Service tax paid by the Tourism Department on output services for the years 2013-14 to 2015-16. “Due to baring provisions, the time for availing credit of earlier period (2013-14 and 2014-15) has lapsed. Thus, inaction on the part of DoT to avail the CENVAT credit in the corresponding years resulted in the loss of refund claim of Rs 1.40 crore,” the report ending March 31, 2016 mentions. Interestingly, the department has paid bulk service tax to Drishti Lifesaving Pvt Ltd during 2013-14 to 2015-16.
The CAG has also rapped the Kadamba Transport Corporation for its inefficient operational performance and relying heavily on the State to meet its expenditure. The report pointed out that traffic revenue per km of the KTCL was less than the all-India average during the respective years upto 2013-14. “Unplanned and unprepared strategy of the management resulting in losses and the KTCL had to suffer a loss Rs 42.72 lakh due to non-operational of two Volvo buses on Goa-Pune-Nasik route for 630 days, as there was delay in obtaining necessary permission and waivers from government agencies,” it observed.
The CAG also referred to KTCL’s failure to select the lowest bidder to buy the buses which is in violation of the Central Vigilance Commission and incurred a loss of around Rs 50 lakh to the corporation.
Team TNV