SHRI SHIRDI SAI TRAVELS Versus CCT, CE&ST, MEDCHAL GST
Service Tax
2018 (12) TMI 1189 – CESTAT HYDERABAD – TMI
CESTAT HYDERABAD – AT
Dated:- 21-12-2018
APPEAL No. ST/31173/2018 – A/31589/2018
Service Tax
Mr. M.V. Ravindran, Member (Judicial)
Shri M.V.S. Sridhar, Advocate for the Appellant.
Shri Guna Ranjan, Superintendent /AR for the Respondent.
ORDER
Per: Mr. M.V. Ravindran
1. This appeal is directed against Order-in-Appeal No. HYD-EXCUS-MD- AP2-0058-18-19-ST, dated 30.08.2018.
2. Heard both sides and perused the records.
3. On perusal of records, it transpires that the issue is regarding the amount of tax to be paid on the services rendered by the appellant to SEZ Unit.
4. Appellant herein, during the period in question from 01.04.2011 to 30.06.2012 rendered the services of Tour Operator Services/Rent-a-cab service to EI Dupont Services India Pvt. Ltd. The said EI Dupont Services India Limited was an unit situated and functioned as an SEZ and are enti
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nded interest. The first appellate authority also dismissed the appeal only on the ground that SEZ unit M/s EI Dupont had not filed the declaration required under notification No. 9/2009-ST to the authorised authorities and the same was not produced before the authorities.
5. On perusal of records, I find that the services is rendered by appellant to SEZ unit and the said SEZ unit is authorised to receive the services without payment of service tax. The provisions of Section 51 of the Special Economic Zone Act, 2005 mandates that the provisions of SEZ Act shall have overriding effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent in any act. The provisions of Section 26 of SEZ Act mandates for exemption of service tax, draw backs and concessions to developer. On holistic reading, the services rendered to an SEZ unit are not taxable, is the settled law. In my view, there being no dispute that the services rendered by the appellant to an unit in SEZ who was supposed to follow the provisions of t
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ication No. 9/2009- S.T., dated 3-3-2009 for the services provided inside SEZ. Before this amendment also, exemption was available to the service recipient by way of refund by the service recipient subject to certain conditions. In this regard, appellant has relied upon the judgment of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. v. CCE & ST (LTU), Mumbai (supra), under which it was held that even if a service provider was not required to pay duty as per the amended provisions of Notification No. 9/2009-S.T. but paid for some reasons then the service provider was entitled to refund under Section 11B of the Central Excise Act, 1944. On the same analogy when services supplied to SEZ are considered as services provided inside a SEZ unit, there is no Service Tax liability on such deemed export as held by CESTAT in the case of Sujana Metal Products Ltd. v. CCE, Hyderabad [(T.-Bang.)].
6.The appellant has further relied upon the judgment of Intas Pharma Ltd. v. CST, Ahmedabad (supra) holding that in vie
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of Service Tax, remitted by taxable service providers in relation to the taxable services provided to a unit in a SEZ. On this harmonious construction, the immunity to Service Tax provided under Section 7 or 26 of the 2005 Act cannot be so Interpreted as to be eclipsed the procedural prescriptions of Notification No. 9/2009 or 15/2009. These notifications are calibrated to enable recipients of taxable services (exempt from liability to tax under the provisions of the 2005 Act), to claim refund of the Service Tax, wherever assessed and collected by Revenue or remitted otherwise by the taxable service provider, inadvertently. Considered in the light of this analysis, the substituted provisions, of clause/sub-paragraph 'C' of Notification No. 15/2009 cannot be inferred to have imposed any disability on the recipient of services consumed wholly within the SEZ, from seeking refund of Service Tax remitted on such transactions, by the providers of such services.”
It is also relevant to quot
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