CESTAT allowed the appeal by the Appellant and quashed and set...

CESTAT allowed the appeal by the Appellant and quashed and set aside the impugned order directing recovery of service tax, interest and penalty. The Tribunal held the impugned services to be IT-enabled services (SEO/web development) and not OIDAR, finding the provider did not own the data distributed over the internet. The payments to foreign clients were established as consideration for export of services on the basis of invoices and bank realizations, negating taxable liability under the impugned assessment. Consequently, the tax demand and ancillary charges were annulled and the appeal of the Appellant was allowed.

---