Service tax expansion: hotel accommodation and licensed air conditioned restaurants taxed with abatements and GST alignment measures.
Levy of service tax is extended to specified hotel accommodation above a stated tariff and to air conditioned restaurants licensed to serve liquor, with abatements of 50% and 70% respectively reducing effective burden. Proposed complementary measures to align the service tax regime with a future GST include expanding service categories, revising import of services valuation, modifying Cenvat Credit to rebalance input and output taxation, rationalizing penal provisions, and adopting Point of Taxation rules to shift toward accrual based collection.