Admissibility of credit of Service Tax paid as recipient under section 66A of the Finance Act, 1994

Reverse charge on imported services: input service tax credit permitted when such services qualify as inputs under CENVAT rules.

Reverse-charge treatment of services imported from abroad is a deeming device that makes such services subject to the ordinary charging provision; the reverse-charge provision does not itself charge a separate tax. Therefore, tax paid by the recipient under the reverse-charge mechanism is tax chargeable under the primary charging provision, and CENVAT credit for such tax must be allowed where the imported service qualifies as an input service under the CENVAT Credit Rules.