Input service credit cannot be denied for invoice name defects when receipt and use are proved; mobile phone credit also upheld.

Service tax credit could not be denied on the technical ground that input-service invoices were issued in the name of a centrally registered head office or another branch, where receipt and utilisation of the services were undisputed; the procedural defect did not defeat substantive credit. Credit on mobile phone services was also upheld because entitlement had already been settled by Tribunal precedent and required no fresh reconsideration. On both issues, the Revenue's objections failed and the assessee's input credit was sustained.

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Issues: (i) Whether service tax credit could be denied merely because the invoices for input services stood in the name of the centrally registered head office. (ii) Whether service tax credit on mobile phone services was admissible.

Issue (i): Whether service tax credit could be denied merely because the invoices for input services stood in the name of the centrally registered head office.

Analysis: The respondent had received and used the input services, and there was no dispute on the substantive receipt and utilisation of those services. Credit could not be refused on the technical ground that the invoices bore the name or address of the head office or another branch office, since the substantive benefit of credit cannot be denied for such a procedural defect.

Conclusion: The credit was admissible and the Revenue's objection on this ground failed.

Issue (ii): Whether service tax credit on mobile phone services was admissible.

Analysis: The entitlement to credit on mobile phone services was already settled by Tribunal precedent and was not treated as an open question requiring fresh reconsideration.

Conclusion: The credit on mobile phone services was correctly allowed.

Final Conclusion: The Revenue's appeals failed on both issues, and the assessee's entitlement to the disputed credit was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: A substantive input service credit cannot be denied merely because the invoice is issued in the name of a head office or branch office, so long as receipt and utilisation of the service are established, and settled entitlement to credit on a service cannot be reopened without a contrary legal basis.

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