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the whole of the service tax leviable on such premiums; the exemption was amended to omit one mission and later rescinded by a subsequent notification.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.