Irrfan Khan and Vinay Pathak roped in to publicise govt-run amnesty scheme for service tax evaders

The Finance Ministry has roped in Irrfan Khan and Vinay Pathak to publicise a government-run amnesty scheme for service tax evaders and warn them about consequences of failure to pay their dues. Both Khan and Pathak, who are known to be good actors, will work for free in the visual info-commercials that would be initially telecast on news channels. It which will be produced by advertising guru Prasoon Joshi, a Finance Ministry official has stated. "The info-commercials will start coming on news channels very soon. Later, they will be telecast on other channels too. The actors have decided not to charge anything for these commercials," the official said. The actors will inform people about the benefits of Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme (VCES), announced by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, for service tax defaulters and encourage them to take its benefits. The VCES that has come into effect from 10 May last, allows a service tax defaulter to pay his dues without any penalty or late payment charges. Under the scheme, a person may make a declaration to the designated authority on or before 31 December, 2013.