TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2010 (11) TMI 255
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....ning to the services rendered by the appellant. On scrutiny of records, it was noted that the appellant had rented the cabs to various customers and collected certain amounts by raising bills and they have not obtained Service Tax registration from the department for the services rendered, subsequently, they obtained the Service Tax registration. Statements were recorded and it was concluded that the appellant had evaded Service Tax liability under Rent-a-Cab scheme and also under Tour Operator's services. Coming to such a conclusion, show-cause notice was issued demanding Service Tax so escaped, also recovery of the amounts which was collected by the appellant as Service Tax from his clients and not deposited with the Government and also for recovery of interest and imposition of penalties. The appellant contested the show-cause notice on various grounds and admitted his liability to discharge Service Tax on Rent-a-Cab Scheme, contested levy of Service Tax as Tour Operator's services, and deposited an amount of Rs. 10,44,196 as against the demand of Rs. 12,99,388 as Rent-a-Cab service. The Adjudicating Authority after following the principles of natural justice, confirmed demands ....
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....bility as held by the Adjudicating Authority under the category of Tour Operator's services. He would submit that the invoices indicated an amount as Service Tax for the period 2005-06 but no amounts were collected. He would submit that they have produced the evidences for non-collection of the amounts but the Adjudicating Authority has not considered them in his Order-in-Original. It is his submission that if an amount is not payable by them as Service Tax during the relevant period, the question of collecting the same and deposited it with the Government under section 11D does not arise. It is his submission that the Adjudicating Authority has, only, on the presumptive ground held that the total amount in the invoice without any breakup would have been collected in one way or the other, as the customer would make payment for the amount of invoices. 5. The learned SDR on the other hand would submit that the penalty imposed by the Adjudicating Authority for not discharging the Service Tax liability on the Rent-a-Cab services is correct and should not be set aside. It is the submissions that the Adjudicating Authority has rightly imposed the penalty under section 78. She w....
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.... the vehicles should be granted permit under Motor Vehicles Act for arranging tours. He would submit that the said definition has undergone a change from 15-7-2008, which is not relevant for the current case. He would submit that the decision of Hon'ble High Court of Punjab and Haryana in the case of CCE v. Kuldeep Singh Gill [2010] 27 STT 224 as relied upon by the learned SDR will not cover the case in their favour, as in the said judgment, the Hon'ble High Court was considering the services rendered by Rent-a-Cab services and not tourist services, wherein the definitions are different. 7. We have considered the submissions made at length by both sides and perused the records. 7.1 We first take up the issue regarding the Service Tax liability on the appellant as regards the Rent-a-Cab services, since the appellant is not contesting the levy of Service Tax, we uphold the confirmation of the demand as done by the Adjudicating Authority and the interest thereon. This would leave us to decide the imposition of penalty on the appellant and revenue's appeal for non-imposition of penalty under section 76 of the Finance Act, 1994 and both sides are aggrieved by the pen....
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....imself has come to a conclusion that during the period in consideration i.e., 2005-06, the appellant is not liable to pay any Service Tax for the services rendered by him under the tourist services. To come to such a conclusion, he has gone through the entire records of the appellant and has noticed that the revenue has not adduced any evidence that the vehicles which were deployed by the appellants were tourist vehicles as defined under section 2(43) of Motor Vehicles Act. Though revenue is in appeal against such a finding (which is dealt with subsequently), we are of the considered view that the plea of the appellant regarding the amounts that they have shown in invoices as Service Tax was never recovered from the customers adduced evidence in form of ledger accounts from books of account, was not correctly appreciated by the Adjudicating Authority. We find that the provisions of section 11D of the Central Excise Act, 1944, applies to the persons who collected an amount representing as a duty or tax, needs to be deposited is correct, but at the same time, in the case in hand there is a clear finding that the appellant is not liable to pay tax under the category of tour operator s....