Service tax on Custom House Agents and Steamer Agents: gross billed service charges taxed; reimbursed expenses excluded.
Service tax applies to services by Custom House Agents and Steamer Agents from 15 June 1997. Taxable value equals the gross service charges billed to the client or principal; reimbursed statutory levies and other expenses paid on behalf of the client are excluded. Lump sum turnkey charges without break up are to be valued at 15% of the lump sum for taxable service. Only billing offices must register; subcontracting CHAs are not separately taxable on inter CHA bills. Procedural obligations include registration, monthly deposit, quarterly returns, interest on delayed payments and specified penalties.

Service tax audit visits limited to prior approved, periodic verifications and tiered sampling for sectoral account audits.
On site verifications for mistakes may be conducted by the Service Tax Cell only with prior Commissioner approval and at prescribed periodic intervals. Annual audits of accounts and records are required for telephone, insurance and stock broker services. Stock brokers are subject to tiered selection and sampling norms-lower contributors face smaller proportional selection and document checks, while higher contributors are subject to greater selection rates and more extensive selective document scrutiny.

Service tax expansion to specific commercial services, applying tax on gross charges with tailored valuation rules.
Service tax is proposed to be extended to a specified list of commercial services and levied as a percentage on the gross amount charged to the client or customer, with service specific valuation rules: air travel agent value includes booking charges and commission but excludes airfare; goods transport operator value includes freight but excludes insurance; outdoor caterer value includes food, beverages and related articles; pandal/shamiana and mandap services include setup and catering charges; tour operator value includes accommodation, food and tour facilities; rent a cab value includes rental. The levy commences on a gazette notified date after enactment.

Service tax minor head allocation clarifies deposit codes for advertising, courier and radio paging services under service tax framework.
The notice designates distinct minor head codes for deposit of service tax collections on advertising services, courier services, and radio paging services and directs use of the adopted TR 6 challans for depositing those service tax receipts under the Major Head for service tax, prescribing specific accounting identifiers to be used for collection and deposit of service tax for the specified services.

Centralised registration for courier agencies enables regional offices to register and remit service tax with specified billing and reporting controls.
A courier agency may centralise service tax registration and payment at a regional office by submitting a written option to the Assistant Commissioner (Service Tax Cell) of the focal point Commissionerate, enclosing branch locations and undertaking to pay service tax on credit transactions by the fifteenth day of the month following the month in which credit bills are raised. The focal point Assistant Commissioner will endorse the option and coordinate endorsement of ST-2 to other Commissionerates where branch offices fall, while the regional office must allocate distinguishable serial numbers on airway bills, compile branch-wise monthly statements with enclosures and attach them to the ST-3 return for reconciliation and assessment.

Service tax on telephone bills: collection based on bills received and book-transfer date governs crediting.
Service tax on telephone charges is to be collected on the value of taxable services shown in telephone bills received during the month, with reliance on the telecom department's financial controls for reconciliation. The date of crediting for interest and penalty purposes is the first book-transfer date in the cash section of the Secondary Switching Area; payments through designated banks must be accompanied by an Annexure A detailing amounts paid and the actual date of crediting for computation of interest and penalty.

Rounding of service tax: fractional tax on invoices must be rounded to the nearest currency unit under the clarification.
Amounts of Service Tax payable calculated on each invoice or document by advertising agencies, couriers, pagers and similar service providers shall be rounded to the nearest rupee: fractions equal to or exceeding fifty paise rounded up to the next rupee, and fractions less than fifty paise ignored.