Input service nexus supports CENVAT credit, and credit cannot be refused for non-standard supporting documents.

Service tax paid on insurance premium for a master policy qualified as input service for CENVAT credit because the insurance arrangement was an integral part of the gold care warranty scheme and had a direct nexus with the appellant's taxable output service. Credit could not be denied on the ground that the insurer's documents were not conventional invoices, bills or challans, as the applicable rules permit reliance on other service-provider documents where statutory requirements are otherwise met.

---

---

Issues: Whether the service tax paid on insurance premium for the master policy obtained by the appellant qualified as input service so as to permit CENVAT credit, and whether denial of credit on the ground of defective supporting documents was sustainable.

Analysis: The appellant was providing taxable output service and was entitled to avail CENVAT credit of service tax paid on input services used for such output service. The insurance arrangement formed an integral part of the gold care warranty scheme and had a direct nexus with the appellant's taxable activity. The Tribunal applied the settled principle that a service forming part of the overall provision of taxable output service, and having a nexus with that output service, qualifies as an input service. It also held that the objection that the documents issued by the insurer were not invoices, bills or challans was unsustainable, because the applicable rules permit reliance on other documents issued by a service provider where the statutory requirements are otherwise satisfied.

Conclusion: The insurance service was an input service and CENVAT credit could not be denied. The objection based on the form of the supporting documents also failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A service integrally connected with the provision of taxable output service and having nexus with that output service is an input service eligible for CENVAT credit, and credit cannot be denied merely because the supporting document is not in the conventional form of an invoice if the governing rules permit such documentation.

---