Temporal scope amendment to service tax notification narrows applicability to periods before 1 April 2016.
Amendment to Service Tax Notification No.25/2012 substitutes in entry 62 the words "during the financial year 2015-16" with "during the period prior to 1st April, 2016", thereby altering the temporal scope of the provision; the change is effected under section 93(1) of the Finance Act, 1994 by Notification No.39/2016-Service Tax.

Regional connectivity passenger transport concession grants temporary service tax abatement subject to no CENVAT credit.
A new concessional service-tax entry covers transport of passengers by air embarking from or terminating in a Regional Connectivity Scheme Airport, subject to an abatement on the taxable service and the mandatory condition that the service provider has not taken CENVAT credit on inputs, capital goods or input services used for providing that taxable service; the concession ceases one year after commencement of operations of the notified RCS airport.

Delegation of Chief Commissioner powers: Principal Commissioners with additional charge may exercise chief commissioner authority in service tax territory.
Notification No. 37/2016 invests Principal Commissioners given additional charge of a Chief Commissioner with the powers of a Chief Commissioner within the Service Tax jurisdiction specified in Notification No. 20/2014-Service Tax, under the Central Excise Act and the Finance Act and the corresponding Central Excise and Service Tax rules, thereby enabling those officers to exercise the statutory authorities of a Chief Commissioner for that jurisdiction.

Exemption for vessel-to-India goods transportation services when invoice and customs manifest conditions are satisfied for tax relief.
Exempts service tax on transportation of goods by vessel from outside India to an Indian customs station where the invoice was issued on or before the cut-off date, provided the import manifest or report was delivered by that date and a Customs-certified copy is produced by the service provider or recipient.

Krishi Kalyan Cess exemption for taxable services when invoice issued and service completed before the cut off, subject to condition.
Exemption from Krishi Kalyan Cess is granted for taxable services where the invoice was issued on or before the prescribed cut off and the provision of the service was completed on or before that cut off, covering the whole of the cess leviable on such services and subject to that single condition.

Service tax liability on representational legal services by senior advocates now attaches to business entities receiving those services.
The amendment clarifies that representational services provided by a senior advocate before any court, tribunal or authority to a business entity located in the taxable territory are treated as services provided to that business entity, including where the contract is entered through another advocate or firm; the business entity who is litigant, applicant or petitioner shall be treated as the person receiving the legal services for the purposes of the notification.

Tax liability for senior advocate representational services now rests with the business entity recipient located in the taxable territory.
The amendment to Service Tax Rules, 1994 designates the business entity recipient located in the taxable territory as the person liable to service tax for representational services provided by a senior advocate before any court, tribunal or authority, including where the contract is entered through another advocate or firm and the senior advocate provides the service.

Senior advocate legal services exemption extended to non-business clients and small business recipients, expanding tax relief.
Amendment expands the service tax exemption for legal services by senior advocates: such services are exempt when supplied to any person other than a business entity, and are exempt when supplied to a business entity whose turnover in the preceding financial year is at or below the specified small-business threshold, by substituting clause (c) of entry 6 in the first paragraph of Notification No.25/2012-Service Tax.

Krishi Kalyan Cess payment option allows prorated cess payment based on service tax liability instead of applying the statutory cess rate.
The amendment permits persons liable under the service tax charging provisions to pay Krishi Kalyan Cess by prorating the total service tax liability: multiply total service tax by the effective Krishi Kalyan Cess rate and divide by the rate of service tax specified in law, for any calendar month or quarter. Once elected this method must be applied uniformly to those services for the financial year. The rule text also replaces fixed numeric references with references to the effective Swachh Bharat Cess rate and the statutory service tax rate.

Refund of Krishi Kalyan Cess permitted for specified services used in SEZs, aligning cess calculation and entitlement.
The notification amends SEZ refund rules to entitle an SEZ Unit or Developer to refund of service tax paid on specified services when ab-initio exemption was admissible but not claimed, and of amounts distributed under the related clause. It also inserts Krishi Kalyan Cess alongside Swachh Bharat Cess for calculation purposes and requires using the sum of their effective rates for rate adjustments. The amendments take effect from 1st June, 2016.

Krishi Kalyan Cess inclusion clarifies it as a leviable charge under service-tax notification, effective from start of June.
Amendment inserts Krishi Kalyan Cess into Explanation 1 of Notification No. 39/2012-Service Tax by adding clause (e) after clause (d), treating the cess as levied under the Finance Act provision cited and thus bringing it within the notification's explanatory scope; notified to come into force from the first day of June, 2016.

Krishi Kalyan Cess exemption limited to services exempt from service tax, levy only on specified value percentages.
Krishi Kalyan Cess is exempted in full for taxable services that are exempt from service tax or otherwise not leviable; levy is preserved only to the extent of the percentage of taxable value specified for services in Notification No. 26/2012-Service Tax, and value for the Cess is to be determined under the Service Tax (Determination of Value) Rules, 2006, effective from 1st June 2016.

Application of existing service tax notification to Krishi Kalyan Cess makes service-tax provisions applicable mutatis mutandis.
Provides that the operative provisions of Notification No. 30/2012 - Service Tax - shall apply mutatis mutandis for administration, assessment, collection and related compliance under the Krishi Kalyan Cess, invoking enabling powers in the Finance Act and commencing from the first day of June, 2016.

Service tax exclusion clarifies specified service categories and renting of immovable property are excluded under amended notification.
The notification inserts an Explanation to Entry 48 of Notification No.25/2012-Service Tax, clarifying that the provisions of Entry 48 shall not apply to certain statutorily specified services and to services by way of renting of immovable property, thereby excluding those categories from the Entry's coverage.

Service tax exemption for pilgrimage services facilitated by the foreign affairs ministry prevents retrospective tax collection for that period.
The Central Government directs that service tax which would have been payable on services provided by specified organisations in respect of a religious pilgrimage facilitated by the Ministry of External Affairs under a bilateral arrangement for the period 1 July 2012 to 19 August 2014 shall not be required to be paid, in view of the generally prevalent practice of non-levy despite those services being taxable.

Point of Taxation clarified for government services to businesses: earlier of invoice due date or receipt of payment.
For services provided by the Government or a local authority to any business entity, the point of taxation is the earlier of: the date payment becomes due as specified in the invoice, bill, challan or other demand document issued by the Government or local authority; or the date payment is made. This amendment is inserted as an additional proviso to rule 7 of the Point of Taxation Rules, 2011 and takes effect on publication in the Official Gazette.

Exclusion for deferred-payment government services: interest-based deferrals to business entities fall outside the valuation clause.
Amendment to rule 6(2)(iv) of the Service Tax (Determination of Value) Rules, 2006 excludes services provided by the Government or a local authority to a business entity where payment is deferred on payment of interest or any other consideration; such deferred-payment arrangements fall outside the application of that clause.

Service tax exemptions for Government and local authority services expand to cover specified public-document issuance, low value supplies, and natural resource assignments.
Amendment inserts exemptions from Service Tax for services "by Government, a local authority or" others and adds entries exempting: services by Government/local authority to another Government/local authority (with specified exclusions); issuance of passports, visas, driving licences and birth/death certificates; services below a specified gross charge (with an annual limit for continuous supplies); toleration of contract non-performance with fines/liquidated damages; statutory registration and safety testing/certification; assignment of natural resource use to individual farmers; Panchayat-related functions; pre-existing assignments of natural resource use (limited to one-time charges); telecom/spectrum permissions for financial year 2015-16 on payment of fees; and deputing officers for import-export duties on merchant overtime charges.

Point of taxation: invoice date governs tax point when recipient liability changes but payment remains unpaid.
Where there is change in the liability or extent of liability of a person required to pay tax as recipient of service notified under sub section (2) of section 68, in case service has been provided and the invoice issued before the date of such change, but payment has not been made as on such date, the point of taxation shall be the date of issuance of the invoice.

Swachh Bharat Cess reporting: new Form ST-3 fields now require detailed payment, adjustment and arrears entries.
The amendment inserts specific Form ST-3 entries for Swachh Bharat Cess: provider and receiver table lines to compute Cess payable, a deposit line for Cess deposited in advance, a new Part DA to record cash payments and adjustments (including advance deposits, excess payments and book adjustments) with a total, arrears/interest/penalty lines for Cess, and revised challan and source-document headings to incorporate Swachh Bharat Cess and the new DA and arrears columns.