Retrospective validation of tour-operator exemption enables refunds of wrongly collected service tax, subject to a limited refund claim period. A notification exempting services provided by a tour operator with a contract carriage permit for inter-State or intra-State passenger transportation is declared to have been in force retrospectively from the first day of April 2000, and refunds must be made of service tax collected that would not have been payable; refund claims are subject to a prescribed limited filing period and the applicable central excise refund procedures.