Tour operator service tax applied only to tourist vehicles; contract carriages certified by the transport authority were outside the pre-amendment scope.

Tour operator service tax under the pre-10.09.2004 entry applied only to tours operated in tourist vehicles. Where the transport authority certified buses as contract carriages and not tourist vehicles, because they did not meet Rule 128 specifications, the vehicles fell outside the statutory definition. That certificate was treated as decisive of vehicle status, and the Revenue did not dispute the legal position that the earlier entry was confined to tourist vehicles. Service tax was therefore not payable on that basis, and the demand set aside by the lower authority was sustained.

---

---

Issues: Whether vehicles operating as contract carriages, certified by the transport authority as not being tourist vehicles, could be treated as tour operators liable to service tax under Section 65(115) of the Finance Act, 1994 for the period prior to 10.09.2004.

Analysis: The relevant taxable entry, as it stood prior to 10.09.2004, applied to persons engaged in operating tours in tourist vehicles. The transport authority's certificate stated that the buses were registered as contract carriages and were not tourist vehicles because they did not satisfy the specifications under Rule 128 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989. The appellate authority also relied on the declared legal position that only tours conducted in tourist vehicles fell within the earlier scope of the entry. The Revenue did not dispute that legal position, and the certificate issued by the competent authority was treated as determinative of the vehicle's status.

Conclusion: The vehicles were not tour operator vehicles within the pre-amendment definition, and service tax was not payable on that basis.

Final Conclusion: The Revenue's challenge failed, and the order setting aside the service tax demand was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: For the period before the statutory expansion of the entry, service tax under tour operator services could be levied only where tours were operated in tourist vehicles, and a competent transport authority's certificate that the vehicle was merely a contract carriage and not a tourist vehicle was decisive against taxability under that entry.

---