Service tax for Defence persons

[Guest]

Defence persons including Army /Navy and Airforce and their EX -service men are exempted from paying service tax in which services /point of services / category of services.please provide section and notification

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Sir, please elaborate your specific query. Thanks.

[KASTURI SETHI]

Sh.Ganeshan Kalyani Ji,

Sh.Frankling G has already elaborated his queries so many times. De facto, he is interested in GTA exemption for Defence forces.

So he changes the form of question.

[Guest]

Defence persons including Army /Navy and Air force and their EX -service men are exempted Or/ Not from paying service tax for purchase of Canteen Stores Department(CSD) ,Ministry of defence,Grocery /liquor items.If exmpted ,Why GTA billing and collectiong ST from concerned Unit Run Canteen of CSD? If ST including in the billing ,ultimately it will affect the defence personal and their Ex service men. So GTA need not add service tax in the bill ,Is it correct?

[KASTURI SETHI]

Sir,

You can send suggestion to the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue for specific exemption from ST for Defence Forces.

[Rajagopalan Ranganathan]

Sir,

At present there is no exemption from payment of service tax for Defence persons including Army /Navy and Airforce and their EX -service men. As suggested by Shri. Sethi Sir, you may take up the matter with government of India, Ministry of Finance.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Sir I am in sink with the suggestion by Sri Kasturi Sir, the Government accepts the presentation / request of the assesse. So many notifications we see daily the reason could be that some one or the other are representing the problems with the Govt. Thanks.

[Akash Deep]

Dear Franklinng g

Service tax is levied on provision of service. service could be any activity done by one person for another for consideration except those excluded from definition of service or contained in negative list. in negative list regime, it would be correct to start with an assumption that all services are taxable and then start to look what are not taxable or exempted from from of service tax. Again i would say service tax is not levied on any person, whether a defence personal, a teacher, a shopkeeper, a lawyer, an engineer, an architect, or an unemployed person. it is levied on any services provided by such person untill unless service provided by such persons are covered in exemption notification or in negative list or excluded from definition of service itself.

there is no exemption from service tax on the basis that certain service, which is otherwise taxable, would be exempted, if provided by a defence personnel or ex army man.

kasturi ji is right in saying you should takeup the matter to the government

[KASTURI SETHI]

Sh.Akash Deep Ji,

Thank you for your comprehensive reply and I am cock sure now that the querist would be satisfied without going hither and thither directly or indirectly in the guise of changing language of his query frequently. Dust stands settled.

AI Summary

Service tax applicability: defence personnel receive no automatic exemption; specific notification required for relief. Service tax is chargeable on provision of services irrespective of the provider's personal status; there is no general exemption for defence personnel or ex-servicemen unless the service is specifically excluded by the negative list or covered by an exemption notification. Where an activity (including GTA services or supplies via unit-run canteens/CSD outlets) qualifies as a taxable service, service tax may be billed and collected in the normal course; any exemption requires a specific statutory or notification-based measure and must be pursued with the government.