Service tax liability shift: specified recipients are made liable to pay tax instead of service providers for listed services.
Persons notified under section 68(2) are liable to pay service tax instead of the service provider for specified services, including telecommunication service, general insurance, insurance auxiliary services by agents, transport of goods by road where consignor or consignee are specified entities (factories, companies, corporations, societies, co-operatives, registered excise dealers, bodies corporate or partnership firms), business auxiliary distribution of mutual funds, sponsorship services to bodies corporate or firms, and taxable services provided from abroad and received in India under section 66A; effective from the first day of January, 2005.

Consignment note requirement: GTAs must issue detailed consignment notes and specified documents qualify as invoices for service tax purposes.
Amendments require goods transport agencies providing taxable road transport services to issue a serially numbered consignment note on receipt of goods, containing consignor and consignee names, vehicle registration, goods details, origin and destination and the person liable to pay service tax. The amendments also treat any document containing consignment note number and date, gross weight and prescribed particulars as an invoice/bill/challan for GTA-provided services, and clarify persons (consignor, consignee or specified commercial entities) in relation to which liability for freight exists.

Service tax exemption for goods transport agency services when gross charges fall below specified thresholds, effective from January 2005.
Exemption from service tax is provided for taxable services by a Goods Transport Agency for transport of goods by road in a goods carriage where the gross amount charged falls below specified thresholds; an "individual consignment" means all goods transported for a consignee. The exemption was effective from January 1, 2005, was amended to substitute the beneficiary wording, and was later rescinded by a 2012 notification.

Service tax exemption for goods transport agency services carrying fruits, vegetables, eggs, milk and food grains by road.
Service tax exemption was granted for taxable services provided by a goods transport agency in relation to the road transport of fruits, vegetables, eggs, milk and, as later amended, food grains and pulses, effective from the first day of January 2005.

Service tax on goods transport agency limited to tax on reduced assessed value; exemptions exclude cenvat users and prior-notification beneficiaries.
Service tax on taxable services by a goods transport agency for road transport is limited to tax calculated on a value equal to 25% of the gross amount charged; the exemption does not apply where Cenvat credit has been taken or where benefit under Notification No. 12/2003-Service Tax has been availed.

Commencement date for clause (p) provision: effective 1 November 2004 for the Finance (No.2) Act, 2004.
The Central Government designates 1 November 2004 as the operative date for the purposes of clause (p) section 90 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2004, by notification dated 25 October 2004, thereby appointing the commencement date for that provision.

Service tax amendment clarifies taxable persons by replacing corporate phrasing to include commercial concerns and financial companies.
The corrigendum revises specific wording in the service tax notification: replacing "by any body corporate or commercial concern" with "by a commercial concern," and altering two occurrences of "financial company" to "financial company or any other body corporate," thereby clarifying the descriptors for commercial concerns, financial companies and other bodies corporate within the notification.

Invoice requirements relaxed for banking and financial service providers allowing varied documents to qualify as invoices when containing required information.
The amendment to Rule 4A permits providers of banking and other financial services, and offices acting as input service distributors for such providers, to treat any document by whatever name as an invoice, bill or challan even if not serially numbered or lacking the recipient's address, provided the document contains the other information required by the rule.

Exemption for interest on banking facilities: interest component excluded from service tax if shown separately in billing.
Exemption excludes the interest component charged by banks, financial institutions and any other person on overdraft facilities, cash credit and discounting of bills, bills of exchange or cheques from service tax under section 66, conditional on the interest or discount amount being shown separately in the invoice, bill or challan; the provision was amended to replace "commercial concern" with "any other person" and later rescinded by a subsequent notification.

Correction to service tax notification removes requirement for registration number, retaining only the address requirement field.
Corrigendum to Notification No. 11/2004-Service Tax replaces the phrase ", address and the registration number" with "and address" in the specified line of the original Gazette text, removing the prior requirement to include a registration number and leaving only the address requirement in that provision.

Service tax exemption for aircraft operator carriage of export cargo: statutory relief granted, later rescinded by notification.
Exempts taxable services of an aircraft operator for transport of export cargo by aircraft from service tax liability under the Finance Act, granted by the Central Government as a public interest statutory exemption and later rescinded by subsequent notification.

Service tax rule amendments increase specified percentage rates under Service Tax Rules, altering references effective on Gazette publication.
The Service Tax (Third Amendment) Rules, 2004, made under the Finance Act, substitute two numerical percentage references in rule (6), sub-rule (7) of the Service Tax Rules, 1994, increasing the lower specified percentage and increasing the higher specified percentage; the Rules come into force on publication in the Official Gazette and apply prospectively except as to prior acts or omissions.

Rate of interest under Section 75: notification fixes annual interest for service tax defaults and records later supersessions.
Notification No. 26/2004 ST dated 10/09/2004 fixes the annual rate of interest for the purposes of Section 75 of the Finance Act, 1994 for calculation of interest on service tax liabilities; the provision was subsequently substituted by Notification No. 14/2011 with an appointed date and later superseded by Notification No. 12/2014.

Service tax exemption for specified categories of services received before the stated cutoff removes tax on defined portions of taxable value.
Exemption from service tax is granted for the portion of value of specified taxable services received by service providers prior to 10th September 2004. The listed categories include commissioning and installation for erection; sub-broker services for securities on recognised exchanges; cable services by multi system operators; specified business auxiliary services by commercial concerns; banking and financial services and related instruments and facilities; tour operator services (with specified exclusions); and life insurance services in relation to risk cover. A corrigendum corrected terminology concerning commercial concerns and bodies corporate.

Service tax exemption for vocational and recreational training institutes, excluding computer training institutes, limits taxable coaching services.
Exempts from service tax commercial training or coaching services provided by vocational training institutes (Industrial Training Institutes/Centres affiliated to the National Council for Vocational Training offering designated trades) and recreational training institutes (centres providing training in activities such as dance, singing, martial arts or hobbies), but provides that the exemption does not apply to commercial training or coaching by computer training institutes.

Rescission of service tax notifications removes prior notifications' effect while preserving acts or omissions before rescission.
The Central Government, under section 93 of the Finance Act, 1994, rescinds Notification No. 4/99-Service Tax (28 February 1999) and Notification No. 9/2002-Service Tax (1 August 2002), terminating their future effect while preserving legal consequences for acts done or omissions occurring before the rescission through an explicit savings clause.

Service tax exemption for pandal or shamiana contractors limits taxable value where catering is included, subject to credit and benefit conditions.
The notification exempts service tax on services provided by a pandal or shamiana contractor to the extent that tax exceeds the amount calculated on a value equal to seventy per cent of the gross amount charged, including services rendered as a caterer. The exemption is subject to three conditions: the contractor must also provide catering with billing indicating catering charges as inclusive; no Cenvat credit on inputs or capital goods has been taken; and the contractor must not have availed benefit under the earlier notification. "Food" is defined as a substantial and satisfying meal.

Exemption for outdoor catering services inside academic or medical premises removes service tax liability when confined to those premises.
Exemption is provided from the whole of service tax for outdoor catering services where the caterer is located within the premises of an academic institution or a medical establishment and provides catering services only within those premises; this relief was established by an executive notification and later rescinded by a subsequent notification.

Effective service tax for outdoor catering limited to tax on part of gross charges, subject to invoicing and credit conditions.
Service tax on outdoor catering is partially exempted by permitting tax liability to be calculated only on a portion of the gross amount charged, provided the invoice indicates charges inclusive of food supply; no Cenvat credit has been taken on inputs or capital goods; and the caterer has not availed benefit under the earlier notification. "Food" is defined as a substantial and satisfying meal.

Exemption of catering services on trains removes service tax liability for outdoor caterers providing onboard catering to clients.
Exempts taxable service provided by an outdoor caterer in relation to catering service provided on a railway train from the whole of service tax leviable; the Central Government, invoking powers under the Finance Act and satisfied it was necessary in the public interest, issued Notification No. 19/2004 to relieve such outdoor caterers of service tax liability for onboard train catering, later rescinded by Notification No. 2/2006.