Cargo handling service covers loading and unloading of transport goods; service tax and non-registration penalty were sustained.

Loading and unloading of steel materials, including movement from wagons to vehicles, transport to a warehouse, stacking, and loading into customers' vehicles, was treated as cargo handling service because the activity involved goods meant for transport. The statutory definition under the service tax law, read with the cited circular, covers loading and unloading of cargo and related packing or unpacking when undertaken for transportation. On that basis, service tax was held payable, and the penalty for non-registration was sustained for providing a taxable service without compliance.

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Issues: Whether the activity of loading and unloading of goods undertaken for steel materials constituted cargo handling service liable to service tax, and whether penalty for non-registration was sustainable.

Analysis: The work undertaken consisted of unloading from wagons, loading into vehicles, transportation to the warehouse, unloading, stacking within the warehouse, and loading into customers' vehicles for delivery. The statutory definition of cargo handling service under Section 65(23) of the Finance Act, 1994 covers loading and unloading of cargo, and the circular clarified that persons undertaking packing, unpacking, loading, and unloading of goods meant to be transported by any mode fall within the tax net. The activity was not mere material handling unrelated to cargo handling, since it involved loading and unloading of goods meant for transport.

Conclusion: The activity amounted to cargo handling service, service tax and penalty were payable, and the appeal was rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: Loading and unloading of goods meant for transport falls within cargo handling service under the service tax law, and penalty for non-registration is sustainable where such taxable service is provided without compliance.

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