Service tax option for air travel agents: fare based payment replaces standard percentage charge for all bookings yearly.
Amendment designates air travel agents who book passage and mandap keepers who raise bills as responsible for collecting service tax. It permits an air travel agent to elect a simplified fare based method to discharge service tax by paying a prescribed fraction of the basic fare of passage instead of the general percentage of the taxable service value; the election must apply uniformly to all the agent's bookings and cannot be changed during a financial year. "Basic fare" is defined as the part of the air fare on which commission is normally paid to the agent.

Service tax commencement on air travel agent and mandap keeper services specified under the Finance Act effective from appointed date.
Under powers conferred by statutory appointment, the Central Government designates the first day of July, 1997 as the date on which service tax shall come into force in respect of the taxable services identified in the specified sub clauses of the definition of taxable services in the Finance Act, 1994.

Service tax liability extension: custom house and steamer agents treated as service providers when they raise bills.
The amendment to the Service Tax Rules inserts sub-clauses treating an agent who raises the bill as the service provider: specifically, a custom house agent who bills clients for services rendered and a steamer agent who bills a shipping line for services rendered, thereby clarifying identification of the taxable person in such agency services.

Service tax commencement for Customs House Agents and steamer agents activates levy while carving out specified service exclusions.
Service tax under the Finance Act, 1997 is appointed to commence on a specified date, making the levy applicable to services including Customs House Agents and steamer agents, while expressly excluding service tax on certain taxable services specified in clause (41) of section 65 of the Finance Act, 1994; the notification uses powers under the Act to fix the operative commencement date and list exclusions.

Exemption to diplomatic services clarified, limiting telephone coverage and expanding the list of covered missions.
Amendment substitutes the proviso to clarify telephone-related exemptions: for France, Norway and Spain limited to Embassy building and Ambassador's residence; for Singapore, Thailand and Burkina Faso limited to official telephones; for Bahrain limited to telephones of the Consulate General in Mumbai. It also inserts additional country entries into the Schedule of Notification No. 5/96-Service Tax, thereby expanding the list of missions covered by the exemption framework.

Service tax amendment mandates revised reporting fields in reporting form, changing tax and payment disclosure requirements.
The Service Tax (Amendment) Rules, 1997 substitute specified column headings in Form ST-3 to require month-wise break-up of taxable service value, separate identification of service tax leviable and collected, a field for interest payable, and consolidated entries for total amount paid with challan or journal slip references, government credit and interest paid, thereby restructuring the payment and reporting columns for clearer tax liability and payment reconciliation.

Service tax exemption clarified to apply to embassy and ambassadorial telephones, and schedule entries for countries updated.
Amendment revises the notification to clarify that the exemption for France and Norway applies specifically to telephones of Embassy buildings and Ambassador's residences, and alters the Schedule by omitting one serial entry and inserting entries for Mexico, Norway and Egypt after the France entry, thereby changing the listed exemptions under the notification.

Service tax exemption for telegraph and general insurance services to UN and declared international organisations, removing tax liability.
Exempts taxable services provided by the telegraph authority and insurers carrying on general insurance business to the United Nations or an international organisation from the whole of service tax leviable under the service tax law, exercised by the Central Government in the public interest. "International organisation" means an organisation declared by the Central Government under the legislation concerning United Nations privileges and immunities to which the Schedule to that legislation applies.

Service tax exemption for Jan Arogya Bima Policy: insurer services to policyholders relieved from service tax, later rescinded.
Exempts taxable services provided by insurers carrying on general insurance business to policyholders of the Jan Arogya Bima Policy from the whole of service tax leviable under the service tax levy, granted by the Central Government under its executive power in the public interest; the exemption was subsequently rescinded by a later notification.

Exemption to non-life insurance premium removed, altering treatment for specified diplomatic missions under service tax rules.
Notification No. 11/96-Service Tax deletes S. No. 58 and related entries from the Schedule to Notification No. 10/96-Service Tax, removing the exemption for non-life insurance premiums of specified diplomatic missions, pursuant to the powers under section 93 of the Finance Act, 1994.

Service tax exemption for non life insurance premiums to specified diplomatic missions removes tax liability on those insurance services.
Exemption of service tax is granted for taxable services provided by insurers carrying on general insurance business in respect of non-life insurance premium payable by specified Diplomatic Missions listed in the annexed Schedule, relieving the whole of the service tax leviable on such premiums; the exemption was amended to omit one mission and later rescinded by a subsequent notification.

Service tax amendment expands the Schedule to include additional foreign states, altering nations covered by the notification.
The Central Government, invoking powers under section 93 of the Finance Act, 1994, amended Notification No. 5/96-Service Tax by inserting additional foreign states into its Schedule via Notification No. 9/96-Service Tax dated 26-11-1996, thereby expanding the territorial list of states identified in the service tax notification as a public interest administrative modification.

Service tax appeal form requirements tightened, mandating specified forms, quadruplicate filing and prescribed attachments for appeals.
The Service Tax Rules are amended to add provisional assessment and best judgment assessment to clause (b) of rule 2; to permit submission in TR-6 or "in any other manner as may be prescribed by the Central Board of Excise and Customs"; and to substitute rule 9 requiring appeals to the Appellate Tribunal to be filed in quadruplicate in specified forms-Form ST-5 for subsection (1) appeals, Form ST-7 for subsection (2) appeals with prescribed attachments, and Form ST-6 for memoranda of cross objections under subsection (4).

Service Tax amendment expands taxable services to include pager connections and assigns billing liability to advertising and courier agencies.
The Service Tax (First Amendment) Rules, 1996, effective 1 November 1996, amend rule 2(1)(d) by expanding the scope from "telephone connection" to "telephone connection or pager" and by inserting sub-clauses that make an advertising agency which raises a bill for services rendered to a client and a courier agency which raises a bill for services rendered to a customer the relevant entities for the applicable service-tax liability.

Service tax commencement under Section 85: government appointed an effective date to bring the provision into force.
The Central Government, under Section 85 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1996, appoints the first day of November, 1996 as the date on which that section shall come into force, by notification.

Exemption for diplomatic telephone services: telegraph authority services to listed missions exempt from service tax with location and rank limits.
Exemption is granted for taxable telegraph authority services relating to telephone connections provided to the diplomatic missions listed in the Schedule, relieving those services from service tax under the Finance Act, 1994. The exemption is subject to mission-specific provisos limiting applicability to embassy buildings and ambassadorial residences, to official telephones only, to consulate general telephones at a specified location, or to members of the mission holding diplomatic rank. The Schedule and footnotes record subsequent insertions, substitutions and omissions; the notification was later rescinded.

Authority title change: Service Tax Rules amended to replace Collector of Central Excise with Commissioner in appeals references.
The Service Tax (Amendment) Rules, 1995 substitute references to the office title throughout the Service Tax Rules, 1994: rule 8 replaces "Collector of Central Excise (Appeals)" with "Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals)"; rule 9(2)(b) replaces both occurrences of "Collector of Central Excise" and the occurrence of "Collector of Central Excise (Appeals)" with the corresponding "Commissioner" formulations; and the notes to form ST-7 make identical substitutions.

Service tax exemption for specified insurance schemes and local public telephone services under a finance act notification applies to listed services.
Exempts specified taxable services from service tax under the Finance Act, 1994, including listed insurance schemes (personal accident, crop, cattle, tribal, group and small premium policies, export insurance) and certain public telephone services (departmental public telephones for local calls, guaranteed public telephones for local calls, and free telephones at airports and hospitals where no bills are issued); the notification commenced on 1 July 1994 and later amendments omitted certain entries and the notification was subsequently rescinded.

Service tax compliance: mandatory registration, deposit and quarterly reconciliation with assessment and appeal procedures under prescribed forms.
Service tax administration requires registration of persons responsible for collecting service tax with a designated Central Excise Officer, maintenance of records, monthly deposit of tax collected to a designated bank and quarterly submission of prescribed returns reconciling provisional deposits and actual collections. Central Excise Officers assess tax and interest on returns, may call for additional documents, adjust payments against assessed liabilities with deficiencies payable and excess refundable, and appeals are governed by prescribed forms, copy requirements and filing procedures to Collector (Appeals) and the Appellate Tribunal.

Service tax commencement: Chapter V of the Finance Act made operative, triggering service tax levy from the appointed commencement date.
The Central Government, exercising powers under the Finance Act, 1994, appoints a commencement date for Chapter V by notification, thereby making the Chapter's provisions operative and rendering the statutory levy of service tax effective from that appointed date.