Gangtok, June 2: Martin Lottery Agency limited in Sikkim will file a petition against a notice issued by the Central Excise Office here directing them to register themselves for service and pay service tax on their operations.The Central Excise in a notice to Martin Lotteries, the authorised marketing agency and distributors of Sikkim State GovernmentPaper Lotteries, on April 30 has asked them to get a service tax registration. ''We received a notice from the department asking us to pay tax under Business Auxiliary service,'' P Ravichandran, in charge of Martin Lotteries branch office, told UNI here today. The notice had mentioned that Martin Lotteries is eligible to pay service tax under the FinanceAct of 1994.Claiming that lottery agencies do not come under the purview of the service tax, Mr Ravichandran said they have already written to the department here mentioning that they are only distributors and are not into any commercial business.The petition would be filed in the second week of June at Sikkim High Court.Service tax if levied is charged at 12 percent on the total turnover, while an additional 2 per cent educational cess is levied on the 12 per cent service tax. The total service tax payable thus becomes 12.24 per cent.Mr Ravichandran said the annual business transactions is around Rs 60 crores per annum of this they have to pay Rs 37 crores to the state government and rest is used for promotion, transportation and other miscellany expenses.''Where will the service tax be applicable in these figures as there are different stakeholders,'' Mr Ravichandran questioned.Martin Lotteries, whose head office is Coimbotore in Tamil Nadu, had been distributing Sikkim government paper lotteries from 1999 all over the country.
--- UNI
Sikkim Served Fresh Daily
