Statutory municipal tax is not consideration for advertising services, so service tax does not apply.

A statutory tax collected by a municipal corporation was held not to be consideration for sale of space or time for advertising services, because the collection was made in discharge of a statutory mandate and not for any advertising activity. The Tribunal treated the issue as covered by its earlier decision on the same point and followed that reasoning. As a result, the tax receipt did not attract service tax as consideration for advertising services, and the Revenue's challenge failed, leaving the adverse demand undisturbed.

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Issues: Whether tax levied by the Municipal Corporation and collected by the respondent could be treated as consideration for providing sale of space or time for advertising services, so as to attract service tax.

Analysis: The collection was made in discharge of a statutory mandate and not as consideration for any advertising service. The issue was treated as covered by the Tribunal's earlier decision on the same point, where similar municipal collections were held not to constitute consideration for sale of space or time for advertising services.

Conclusion: The tax collected by the Municipal Corporation was not liable to service tax as consideration for advertising services.

Final Conclusion: The appeal by the Revenue failed and the adverse demand was left undisturbed.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory tax collected by a municipal body does not amount to consideration for taxable advertising services.

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