TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2013 (4) TMI 428
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....challenge distinct adjudication orders passed against the appellants/ assessees herein levying service tax in relation to sponsorship of IPL League matches, in IPL-1, IPL-2 and IPL-3 during the period 2008 to 2010. The issue falling for our appellate consideration is whether sponsorship of the IPL matches by appellants falls within the exclusionary clause of Section 65 (105) (zzzn) of the Finance Act, 1994 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). 3. The provision enjoins levy of service tax on services provided or to be provided to anybody corporate or firm, by any person receiving sponsorship, in relation to sponsorship, in any manner, but excluding services in relation to sponsorship of sports events. 4. It is the admitted position by Reve....
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....xable. On the same analogy the sponsorship received by a player or a Team would be independent of sport event and hence taxable. The adjudicating authority further states that since departmental officers are bound to follow Instructions/ Circulars / Clarifications issued by the CBEC, sponsorship fee paid by the assessees to the BCCI / IPL cannot be considered to be sponsorship of any sports event, being clearly in the nature of obtaining sponsorship rights for being designated as the exclusive Title Sponsor of the League by the BCCI/ IPL, which is not a sports event but a society registered under The Tamil Nadu Societies Act, 1975. 7. We confess our inability to comprehend the contrived reasoning recorded by the adjudicating authority. It....
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....of sports event. In our considered view the exclusionary clause admits of no ambiguity, grammatical, syntactical or contextual. The legislature in its wisdom has considered it appropriate to extend the benefit of immunity to service tax, to the service of sponsorship in relation to sports events. The legislature has incorporated no restriction upon the exclusion by enacting that where a sports events has a commercial purpose, the exclusion is inapplicable. In the absence of ambiguity, the golden rule of construction namely a construction whereby the literal meaning corresponds to the legal meaning, must be adopted. 10. We find no justification for the adjudicating authority's assumption that since there is an underlying commercial element ....
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....L cannot be imagined to be a sporting event. The authority records that from the agreement dated 18.04.2008 (the relevant sponsorship agreement), the assessee was appointed the official partner as set out in clause 2 thereof and franchisee rights accrue to the assessee for a consideration (sponsorship fee) paid to the BCCI/ IPL; and the terms and conditions in the sponsorship agreement clearly disclose that the assessee had made the payment to the BCCI/ IPL, not for a T-20 tournament of any cricket match but to BCCI/ IPL, which itself is not a game. 15. The above analysis of the adjudication authority, creative as it goes, defies comprehension. On a true and fair analysis of the sponsorship agreement, that the sponsorship agreement is in r....