TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2013 (4) TMI 69
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....hether the reimbursement are subjected to the levy of service tax prior to 19.04.2006? 4. Whether the demand of service tax confirmed against the appellant covering the period from April 2003 to March 2006in terms of Section 67 of Finance Act, 1994, read with Service Tax (Determination of Value) Rules, 2006 is correct, when the Rule itself is not in existence at the time of the provision of taxable services? 2. Assessee M/ s.Gopinath and Sharma is a firm of Chartered Accountants duly registered with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. As the services rendered by the assessee are taxable under the category of "Chartered Accountant Services" by virtue of the provisions contained in Chapter V of the Finance Act, 1994, the assessee duly registered themselves with service tax and issued with Registration No.AAAFG4230GST002 . During the course of audit, it was ascertained that the assessee have provided taxable service to their clients by sub-contracting the work to their associates. Assessee had out-sourced/sub-contracted their operations with other Chartered Accountant Firms situated in other Cities and Towns in respect of the activities relating to their cl....
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....(Appeals) by mistake was filed by the staff of the assessee in the office of the Commissioner of Service Tax and obtained acknowledgement dated 12.03.2010 and immediately on noticing the error, assessee filed copies of appeal before the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) along with their letter dated 26.12.2011 and the Tribunal failed to consider the enormous materials placed by the assessee regarding filing of appeal in the wrong Forum and receipt and acknowledgement supported by records. Drawing our attention to the typed set of papers, it was submitted that the impugned order was passed without taking cognizance of the appeal being filed before the Commissioner of Service Tax and without verifying the facts and calling for the records, the Tribunal hurriedly passed the impugned order and prays for allowing of the appeal. 6. Mr.V.Sundareswaran , learned counsel for department submitted that the Order in Original No.96 of 2009 was passed on 16.12.2009 and as per Section 85 of Finance Act 1994, appeal ought to have been filed within the statutory period of three months plus discretionary period of another three months under proviso to sub-section 3 of Section 85 of Finance A....
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.... to be filed before the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals). It is the case of assessee that appeal in Form ST-4 addressed to the Lower Appellate Authority - Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) was by mistake filed by the staff of the assessee in the office of the Commissioner of Service Tax and obtained acknowledgement (with round seal of the department) dated 12.3.2010. Further case of assessee is that in their busy schedule, they did not notice the mistake of filing the appeal before the Commissioner of Service Tax instead of Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) and the error escaped the attention of assessee's Firm till they were issued with a notice for recovery of arrears. When the jurisdictional Superintendent of Service Tax by his Proceedings in C.No.IV /16/200 STC GR I dated 16.11.2011 called for details of appeal and only at that juncture, the assessee noticed the mistake. According to assessee , on noticing the error, immediately, they filed copies of appeal before the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) along with their letter dated 26.12.2011 and the same was acknowledged by the office of the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) on 29.12.2011....
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.... Form ST-4 cannot be countenanced. The assessee had also filed RTI application before the Commissioner of Service Tax requesting them to provide Inward Correspondence Numbers with date and copies of the respective folios of the IC Register. The information obtained from the Commissioner of Service Tax is filed in Page No.42 of the typed set of papers (29.1.2013). By perusal of the information, it is seen that the Commissioner of Service Tax has clearly stated that "Appeal against the Order in Original No.96 of 2009 dated 16.12.2009 (filed on 12.03.2010) was not received in the Service Tax Commissionerate . 14. First Appellate Authority made enquiries with the office of the Commissioner of Service Tax, Chennai and ascertained that no records were available with that office for filing appeal against the Order in Original No.96 of 2009 dated 16.12.2009. Considering in the light of the information obtained under RTI Act, the factual finding recorded by the First Appellate Authority cannot said to be an erroneous or contrary to the facts and materials on record. 15. Drawing our attention to the information obtained under RTI Act, the learned counsel for assessee submitted that all the....