After a string of film and TV personalities, taxmen zeroed in on the famous choreographer for not paying dues to the tune of Rs 35 lakh
The service tax department has booked choreographer Gopi Ramesh D’souza, known to the public as Remo, for evading service tax. Remo has been accused of earning crores from various sources but not paying duty on the income.
Financial troubles? Authorities said that Remo has earned Rs 3 crore from various enterprises but did not pay the 12.36 per cent service tax, as required by law. File Pic
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On November 6, service tax officials, led by commissioner R Shekhar, visited Remo’s office at his residence in Lokhandwala, Andheri (West). During the search, officials found that he was raking in tens of lakhs from a host of sources.
For instance, he has directed a film Any Body Can Dance. He is a judge in two TV dance shows: Jhalak Dikhla Ja and Dance India Dance. He also performed at the IIFA awards at Macau. He also runs a dance academy out of his residence.
Sources revealed that the dancer has earned Rs 3 crore from these enterprises but did not pay the 12.36 per cent service tax, as required by law.
The taxmen have booked him for defaulting on the payment of Rs 35 lakh in the way of taxes. He, however, has assured them that he would pay the monies by demand draft soon. Deputy commissioner Sameer Wankhede, anti-evasion unit of the service tax department, said, “We have registered a case against Remo.” He refused to divulge the details.
In the past four months, the department has uncovered 17 cases of tax evasion by film personalities, who are to yet cough up a collective Rs 22 crore. Remo is one of them.
Under the scanner
>> On October 15, singer Adnan Sami was called to Service Tax department for non-payment of taxes. After investigations, the singer agreed to pay Rs 10 lakh.
>> On October 5, producer of movies such as Shararat and Fun2shh, Dabangg and Rockstar Dhillin Mehta’s four bank accounts were frozen after he failed to pay up Rs 8.8 crore as tax.
>> On September 26, the Service Tax department booked comedian Kapil Sharma for non-payment of tax dues amounting to around Rs 60 lakh.
>> On September 20, authorities filed a case of tax evasion against Vivek Oberoi for evading tax of about Rs 50 lakh.u00a0
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