TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2011 (1) TMI 90
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....irmed on the ground that the appellants have rendered Consulting Engineer Services to M/s IOCL Gujarat. 2. As per facts on record, the appellant is a company incorporated under the laws ofUSA, having their address as 245, Summer Street,Boston,Massachusetts,U.S.A.3. They entered into an agreement dt.8.6.00 with IOCL Gujarat Refinery, Vadodara for designing, constructing, operating, maintaining, repairing, re-constructing of unit for the commercial practice of Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (FCC). The said agreement had 3 parts i.e. Licence Agreement, Engineering Agreement, Guarantee Agreement. In terms of Licence Agreement, certain technical know-how and patent rights relating to RFCC unit and EDV technology were licenced to IOCL. Th....
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....es as detailed under Section 65 (18) of Finance Act, 1994 and the appellant was required to pay the service tax on the same. Accordingly, a show cause notice dt.19.4.05 was issued to the appellant, proposing to recover the service tax of Rs.69,70,343/- along with confirmation of interest and imposition of penalty in respect of services rendered by the appellant during the period 2000-2001. The notice proposed invocation of extended period of limitation. The said notice stand culminated into an order passed by the Commissioner impugned before us. 5. We have heard the learned advocate Shri Prakash Shah, learned Advocate for the appellant and Shri Rajendra Nagar, learned SDR for the Revenue. 6. Though the appellant have challenged the im....
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....es provided withinIndia. As such, it was contended by the appellant that development of designs, prices, preparation of operating manual etc. was done by them inBoston,USAand copies of design/manual so prepared were sent by them fromUSAto IOCL inIndia. As such, no service tax is payable in respect of technical designs, drawings, know-how etc which has been developed by them entirely outsideterritoryofIndiafor use by IOCL. The service tax is leviable on rendering of services inIndiaand not on entering into agreement with an Indian assessee. They further clarified that though the agreement provided for deputation of skilled personnel to IOCL inIndia, the said option was never exercised by either IOCL and none of their experts visitedIndia. ....
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....dly no such service stands provided by the appellant inIndia, cannot be held to be a taxable event. The above view is also supported from the question 3 of the Frequently Asked Questions and Answers by the Directorate of Publicity, Public Relation, wherein it was clarified that the services provided abroad shall not attract service tax as the levy covers only the services provided withinIndia. 10. Apart from the above, we also find that the demand in question is barred by limitation, inasmuch as the show cause notice for the period from 2000-2001 was issued on 19.04.05. The Commissioner has invoked the extended period of limitation, by observing that when the appellant entered into an agreement dt.8.6.01 with IOCL, it was obligatory on t....
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.... assessee to get licences and to pay duty, cannot be made the reason for invoking extended period, in the absence of any positive evidence to show mis-statement or suppression of facts with intent to evade payment of duty. The Commissioner has not referred to or relied upon any instance or evidence to show that the appellants have knowingly suppressed the above facts from the department, with malafide intention not to pay the tax. If the views of the Commissioner that the appellants should have made enquiries and done the ground work to find out the liability of service tax, are accepted to be good and just reasons for invocation of extended period, the plea of limitation would not be available to any of the assessee, inasmuch as every asse....