Did Ram Gopal Verma evade service tax? Officials raid office

Mumbai: The Service Tax Department officials today conducted a survey at the offices of Bollywood director Ram Gopal Verma, for allegedly not registering himself with the Department for the assessment purposes.

Sameer Wankhade, Deputy Commissioner, Service Tax, confirmed the development but refused to divulge further details.

[caption id="attachment_1102359" align="alignright" width="380"] Ram Gopal Verma. Image: ibnlive[/caption]

Sources in the department said officials visited the offices of Verma's company, 'Ram Gopal Film Factory', today and were in the process of recording his statement.

"We are looking for the projects that he undertook since assessment year 2010," said a source, adding that only after this exercise it would be known if Verma had any tax liability, and if he had evaded tax.

The service tax officials say that Varma tried to evade tax by shifting base to Hyderabad when his films suffered financially post 2008. Until then he was based out of Mumbai, reported Zee News.

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But the officials grew suspicious when they saw that RGV's name is not there in the list of 132 persons from the film industry. The raid has only confirmed their doubts.

Film directors are liable to pay the service tax.

As Verma also directs Telegu films, officials had sought some documents from Hyderabad as well, sources said.

PTI