We had a building contractor repair and paint our residential building in a CHS. We had obtained from him a service tax registration number that we now realise is either a temporary number or an invalid number. He has submitted bills with service tax charge and we have paid the same. When we asked him for a copy of the challan by which he has paid it to the treasury, he refuses to provide it and says he has not paid the tax. His argument is that if he does not pay he will have to pay penalty or go to jail and that is his problem and not our lookout. He is confident that he can be under the radar. So we have paid around Rs 5 lakhs worth of Vat and Service tax which will never reach the government.
We realise he is cheating both us and the govt by doing this. Is there a solution for this problem?
