Payment of sanctioned rebate/refund to claimants will be made mandatorily via RTGS/NEFT under ECS from bank-verified accounts.
Sanctioned refunds and rebates must be mandatorily credited to claimants' bank accounts via RTGS/NEFT under ECS; claimants must provide bank-authenticated details in Annexure A, pending unpaid claims will also be paid via RTGS/NEFT, and sanctioning authorities will submit Annexure B with a consolidated cheque to the bank for verification and crediting of individual beneficiaries, with banks allowed to deduct any service charges from the sanctioned amounts.

Distribution of common input service credit must be pro rata by unit turnover, regardless of actual service use.
Allocation of common input service credit under amended rule 7(d) of the Cenvat Credit Rules is to be distributed pro rata among all units operational in the current year during the relevant period, by multiplying the total common credit by each unit's turnover divided by the total turnover of all operational units; the phrase 'such unit' does not confine distribution to only units that used the services, and the turnover-ratio method applies irrespective of actual service use.

Widening service tax base extends taxation to digital/out of home advertising and radio taxi services, with staged compliance measures.
The Budget proposals widen the service tax base by bringing additional services-including digital and out of home advertising and radio taxi services-within taxation, withdraw or rationalise specific exemptions (notably air conditioned contract carriages and certain clinical testing), and introduce compliance measures such as variable interest rates, mandatory e payment, amendments to reverse charge and place of provision rules, changes to CENVAT credit eligibility and works contract valuation, alongside facilitation provisions and specified social sector exemptions.

Service tax registration required for postal and railway services; must register, pay electronically and file returns.
With effect from 1-4-2014, service tax registration and compliance under the Finance Act, 1994 apply to the Department of Posts and the Ministry of Railways; they and their subordinate offices must register, make electronic payment of duty, file returns electronically, seek assistance from the jurisdictional Chief Commissioner/Commissioner, and, after completing formalities and accommodating transition and internal reorganisation, be audited to verify correct discharge of service tax liability.

E-payment mandate ensures online and cash payments are accounted same-day; cheque clearance determines fiscal year allocation.
E-payments and cash payments made by the assessee are accounted the same day (scroll date) and thus in the same financial year; payments by negotiable instrument are credited only on honor, with the scroll date taken as the date of clearance, which may shift accounting into the next financial year. Taxpayers required to pay electronically under the applicable notifications should make payments early to ensure settlement in the current year and avoid last minute congestion; banks were urged to keep branches open at month end.

Service tax audit compliance required: audits scheduled by headquarters must be facilitated by taxpayers and their advisors without undue delay.
Service Tax Audit is conducted by Central Excise officers to assess compliance with Chapter V of the Finance Act; audit teams require taxpayers to provide balance sheets, sample invoices and data on tax payments and input credit for completed financial years to enable desk review and audit plan approval. Timely production of documents and cooperation with scheduled audits are mandatory statutory compliance and audits cannot be postponed to suit taxpayers' consultants or advisors.

Service tax exemption expanded to include rice handling, transport and cord blood bank preservation services under amended notification.
The exemption notification 25/2012 ST has been amended to exempt services of loading, unloading, packing, storage or warehousing of rice, and a circular clarifies that transportation of rice by rail, vessel or by a Goods Transport Agency is exempt as "food stuff". Milling of paddy into rice as job work is confirmed as an intermediate production process exempt under the notification. The notification also adds services by cord blood banks for preservation of stem cells and related services to the exempt list.

Service tax registration surrender requires online application, specified documents, undertakings, and cancellation after superintendent verification by T-PIN if needed.
Procedure requires online ACES filing or manual application for pre-ACES registrations to surrender service tax registration for specified reasons; submission of Annexure-I undertaking, up to six ST-3 returns, up to three years of financial statements (or income-tax returns/bank statements), and Annexure-II details of SCNs, demands, appeals and audits. Superintendent verifies dues, may require reconciliation, and cancels registration after compliance; deficiencies must be cured within 15 days and ACES credential issues are addressed via Help Desk and T-PIN.

Service tax exemptions for rice: transport, handling and milling activities exempt under specified notifications, clarified by circular
Clarification that, despite the statutory definition excluding rice, exemption notifications extend negative list benefits to rice: transportation by rail or vessel and by goods transport agency is exempt; loading, unloading, packing, storage and warehousing of rice are exempt; and milling of paddy into rice on a job work basis is exempt as an intermediate agricultural process. Further queries may be addressed to the Tax Research Unit and trade notices may be issued.

Service tax registration: designated divisional officers to accept and process applications for quicker disposal, centralised unit disbanded.
Service tax registration and amendment applications will be processed by territorially reorganised jurisdictional Divisions through nominated officers under Divisional Deputy/Assistant Commissioners to expedite disposal and clarify taxpayer jurisdiction; the PRO Section handling centralised registrations will be disbanded and all filings handled by the listed divisional officers.

Reverse charge on foreign bank processing fees: Indian banks must remit service tax as recipients under law.
Foreign banks' commissions and processing charges for forwarding import/export documents and realisation of proceeds are services provided to the Indian bank that corresponds with the foreign bank; the Indian bank, being the recipient under the implied contractual regime created by international banking rules, is liable to discharge service tax under the reverse charge/recipient liability mechanism and must comply, including for past periods.

Definition of governmental authority broadened to include statute set or government established bodies with predominant government participation for municipal functions.
The substituted clause defines "governmental authority" to mean an authority, board, or other body either set up by an Act of Parliament or a State legislature, or established by Government, with predominant government participation by way of equity or control, constituted to carry out any function entrusted to a municipality under the constitutional provision concerning municipal powers. The amendment tightens recognition to bodies meeting the statute-establishment or government-formation criterion plus dominant government ownership or control.

Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme requires full payment and issuance of discharge acknowledgement before CENVAT credit eligibility is confirmed.
A VCES declaration becomes conclusive only upon issuance of an acknowledgement of discharge in form VCES-3 after payment of service tax dues in full, including interest, and that acknowledgement must be issued within the prescribed short timeframe; CENVAT credit eligibility in respect of amounts paid under VCES is governed by the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004, so entitlement to credit follows satisfaction of the statutory discharge and issuance requirements.

Service tax amendment expands territorial scope wording to include 'country' in a specified exemption entry.
An amendment to a service tax notification substitutes the phrase 'district, State, zone or country' for the earlier territorial wording in entry eleven, item (a), thereby expanding the territorial scope language of that exemption entry; the change is communicated by trade notice and posted on official departmental websites.

Exemption for RWA services limited to member contributions for third party goods or services; excess contributions attract service tax liability.
Under the negative list regime, services by RWAs to their own members are exempt when contributions are reimbursements or shares for sourcing third party goods or services for common use, subject to a prescribed per member monetary ceiling; any member contribution exceeding that ceiling is wholly ineligible for the exemption and taxable. RWAs may claim threshold exemption subject to aggregate value rules that exclude exempt services; pure agent treatment can exclude certain pass through payments from taxable value; CENVAT credit is available under the Cenvat Credit Rules.