Exemption for business auxiliary services: service tax not required for manufacture related alcoholic beverage services during a specified September period.
The Central Government directed that service tax payable on business auxiliary services provided during the course of manufacture or processing of alcoholic beverages, which were not levied pursuant to a prevalent non levy practice, shall not be required to be paid for the specified period in September 2009, exercising powers under the Central Excise Act and the Finance Act.

Service tax exemption for manufacturers of cycle and sewing machine parts subject to aggregate value limits, specified processes, and accounting conditions.
Exemption applies to taxable services in relation to specified processes in manufacture of parts of cycles or sewing machines where the aggregate value of such taxable services provided by a service provider does not exceed a prescribed threshold for the preceding financial year; exemption is restricted to the first clearances made on or after the first day of April in any financial year; providers who also manufacture dutiable goods must maintain separate accounts of receipt, production and clearance of exempted and dutiable goods and services; specified processes include electroplating, zinc plating, anodizing, heat treatment, powder coating, painting and auto black.

Service tax exemption for works contracts on canals not primarily serving commerce or industry applies to specified taxable services.
Exempts taxable service for execution of works contracts relating to canals not primarily used for commerce or industry, by exempting the whole of service tax leviable on the taxable service defined in sub clause (zzzza) of clause (105) of section 65 when arising from such canal works, on the basis of public interest; issued as Notification No. 41/2009 Service Tax and later rescinded.

Exemption for transport of export goods through waterways requires exporter to produce bill of lading and evidence of export.
Exempts services for transport of export goods through national waterway, inland water and coastal shipping, conditional on the exporter producing the Bill of Lading or Consignment Note or similar document issued in his name and producing evidence that the transport is provided for export of the relevant goods.

Exemption for manufacture-or-processing service of alcoholic beverages reduces taxable value by inputs' value where no Cenvat credit is taken.
Exempts the taxable service of manufacture or processing of alcoholic beverages by allowing deduction from taxable value equal to the value of inputs (excluding capital goods), subject to conditions: no Cenvat credit taken, documentary proof specifying input value, and maintenance of separate accounts where the provider also manufactures on own account.

Amendment to Export of Services Rules expands bracketed service entries, updating enumerations and rule 3 references.
Amendment expands specified bracketed lists in rule 3(1) of the Export of Services Rules: clause (i) is substituted to add an additional bracketed entry, clause (ii) is substituted to expand its bracketed list by two entries, and clause (iii)(b) is substituted to include an additional bracketed item, thereby revising the enumerations in the three identified clauses.

Rule 3 amendment expands enumerated service entries by substituting additional bracketed identifiers, broadening covered service descriptions.
Amendment expands the scope of entries within rule 3 of the Taxation of Services (Provided from outside India and Received in India) Rules, 2006 by substituting specified bracketed letter references in clause (i), clause (ii), and clause (iii)(b), thereby adding further referenced entries to the enumerations that determine which service descriptions are included under the rule.

Rescission of notification withdraws exemption for certain rail goods transport services, effective from publication in the Gazette.
The Central Government rescinds a prior notification that exempted certain services relating to the transport of goods by rail, withdrawing that exemption while preserving the effect of actions taken or omissions before rescission; the rescission is effected under powers granted by the Finance Act and comes into force from publication in the Gazette of India.

Service tax exemption expanded to include specified export promotion councils' services under amended notification provisions.
The amendment inserts six specified export promotion councils into paragraph 1 of Notification No.16/2009, thereby extending the notification's service tax exemption to services provided by those councils and modifying the enumerative list of exempt entities under the principal notification.

Amendment to service tax notification clarifies the taxable service as transport of goods in containers by rail.
The Central Government, invoking powers under sub section (1) of section 93 of the Finance Act, 1994, amends notification No. 1/2006 Service Tax by substituting at S.No.11, column (3) of the Table the entry Transport of goods in containers by rail, thereby revising the notification schedule to specify that service description for service tax purposes.

Service tax exemption for rail goods transport preserves tax relief but excludes non-government container rail services.
The notification exempts the taxable service provided to any person in relation to transport of goods by rail from the whole of the service tax leviable under the Finance Act, while expressly excluding services provided by any person other than the government railway in relation to transport of goods in containers by rail.

Service tax exemption for services linked to manufacture of alcoholic pharmaceutical and cosmetic preparations, removing the tax levy on those services.
The notification exempts from service tax services provided to a client in relation to the manufacture of pharmaceutical products, medicines, perfumery, cosmetics or toilet preparations containing alcohol that are charged to excise duty under the Medicinal and Toilet Preparations excise regime, removing the whole of the service tax leviable on those services; the exemption was subsequently rescinded by a later notification.

Exemption for sub-broker services removes service tax on services to stock-brokers relating to listed securities transactions.
The Central Government exempted the taxable service provided by a sub-broker, extended to include an authorised person, to a stock-broker in relation to the sale or purchase of securities listed on a registered stock exchange, removing the whole of the service tax leviable on that service under the Finance Act; the notification was subsequently rescinded and the authorised person insertion was made by a later amendment.

Service tax amendment substitutes 'contract carriage permit' with 'contract carriage or tourist vehicles with a permit' clarifying scope.
Amend notification No. 20/2009-Service Tax (7 July 2009) by substituting the phrase "contract carriage permit" with "contract carriage or tourist vehicles with a permit", as effected by the corrigendum G.S.R. 622(E) dated 31 August 2009, thereby clarifying that the relevant vehicle category includes tourist vehicles that hold permits.

Service tax exemption for transport of specified goods by national waterway, inland and coastal shipping applies to essential goods.
The Central Government exempts the taxable service provided in relation to the transport of goods specified in the Table from the whole of service tax leviable under Section 66 when such transport is effected through national waterways, inland water or coastal shipping; the exemption came into force on the first day of September 2009 and is confined to the enumerated categories of goods including foodstuffs, agricultural produce, fertilizers, petroleum products, raw jute, seeds, medicines, relief materials, defence equipment, passenger luggage and registered newspapers.

Transport of goods by rail specified as taxable service under amended service tax notification, effective from September.
Amendment to Notification No. 1/2006-Service Tax substitutes the entry at S.No.11, column (3) in the Table with "Transport of goods by rail". The Central Government, exercising powers under sub section (1) of section 93 of the Finance Act, 1994, notifies this change with effect from 1st September, 2009.

Service tax exemption for transport of specified goods by rail removes service tax on listed categories.
Exempts from service tax the taxable service of transport of goods by rail where the goods are those specified in the Table, including defence equipment, railway materials, postal mail bags, relief materials, passengers' luggage, certain parcels and a listed range of low-rate or below-train-load/wagon-load commodities, and kerosene for public distribution and petroleum products booked by public sector oil companies; exemption effected under powers in section 93 of the Finance Act and effective 1 September 2009.

Advance ruling scheme extended to public sector companies, allowing prior determination of service tax liability under the statutory provision.
The notification designates public sector companies as a class of persons under the Finance Act enabling those companies to access the advance ruling scheme for prior determination of service tax liability; it adopts the Income-tax Act definition of "public sector company" to ensure consistent application.

Service tax commencement under Finance Act triggers liability for newly specified services from appointed commencement date.
The Central Government, exercising powers under the enabling clauses of section 113 of the Finance (No.2) Act, 2009, appoints the commencement date on which the provisions of that Act shall come into force, thereby rendering newly specified services liable to service tax from the appointed commencement date by Gazette notification.

Territorial scope of India extended to include continental shelf and exclusive economic zone for export of services.
The notification substitutes the Explanation to rule 3 of the Export of Services Rules, 2005 so that for the purposes of that rule "India" includes installations, structures and vessels in the continental shelf of India and the exclusive economic zone of India, thereby extending the territorial scope for determining export of services.