Jamshedpur, Nov. 10: The multi-crore India Telecom Card (ITC) scam of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) took a new turn with the central excise department issuing a notice to the telecom department for evasion of service tax.

According to sources in the central excise department here, notice has been served to the BSNL, Jamshedpur circle, for non-payment of Rs 1.50 crore as service tax, including penalty on ITC cards.

The revenue department has asked the BSNL to pay service tax on all the ITC cards worth Rs 9 crore that were allegedly sold by the telecom staff during the scam period between 2000 and 2004 without making an entry in the records.

The ITC scam was busted in August after an inquiry was initiated on the basis of information from the Calcutta office over differences in the total number of ITC cards codes downloaded in the Jamshedpur circle and the revenue collection. It was found that BSNL had suffered a loss of Rs 9 crore.

Later, the case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). After investigations, two BSNL officials ? divisional engineer telecom (internal) S.K. Madhukar and junior telecom officer N.K. Singh, attached with the Jamshedpur circle ? were suspended.

A senior official of the central excise department said BSNL is both the creator and custodian of secret codes of the ITC cards and the scam was the handiwork of its employees. ?Moreover, the customers had also used these ITC cards. So the department has put up a claim for revenue loss,? said the official.

A senior BSNL accounts officer admitted that they had received the tax evasion and penalty notice of Rs 1.5 crore from the central excise department.

?The telecom department is considering the claim of the central excise as there is no question of paying any service tax on cards that were not actually sold by the department,? said the BSNL official.

General manager of BSNL?s Jamshedpur circle, P.K. Srivastava, expressed ignorance about the notice served by the central excise department.