TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2014 (5) TMI 726
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....Seeds Act, 1966 (Act No. 54 of 1966) and the Seeds Rules, 1968. 2. The appellants charge fee for the said certification as prescribed under the said Rules. A new Service titled as "Technical Inspection and Certification Service" became leviable to Service Tax with effect from 1.7.2003. As per Section 65(108) of the Finance Act, "Technical Inspection and Certification" means inspection or examination of goods or process or material or any immovable property to certify that such goods or process or material or immovable property qualifies or maintains the specified standard, including functionality or utility or quantity or safety or any other characteristic or parameters, but does not include any service in relation to inspection and certif....
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....the Finance Act, 1994 were also confirmed. 4. The appellants are before us against the said order. 5. Heard both sides. 6. The learned counsel for the appellant's main contention was that the appellant is doing the certification work as envisaged under the Seeds Act, 1956 and the Rules made thereunder. According to the learned counsel seeds cannot be sold without a certification, and under the Act and the Rules the appellants are certifying agency who are required to ensure minimum limits of germination and purity etc. and they start inspection right from the time of growing of such seeds. The learned counsel took us through the Seeds Act and the Rules made thereunder to emphasize the point that the appellants are doing statutory fun....
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....ted 1.8.2006 has clarified to Gujarat State Seeds Certification Agency that no service tax is leviable. He also stated that in view of the fact that there was confusion even in the minds of the departmental officers, there is no case whatsoever for invoking the extended period of limitation. The learned counsel further stated that with effect from 1.4.2005 even though they were of the view that service tax is not leviable, the appellant started collecting the same and kept the entire amount in a separate bank account and the amounts so collected alongwith interest has already been deposited with the Revenue. This itself shows that there was no willful intention to evade service tax. Learned Counsel also argued that appellant being a Governm....
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....ax vide letter dated August 01,2006 on the issue, however, the said clarification was withdrawn on 27.10.2006 itself. Even the said clarification was beyond the period covered by the demand notice. 9. We have considered the rival submissions. We have also gone through the Seeds Act, 1966 as also the Rules made thereunder. The said Seed Act provided for regulating the quality of certain varieties of notified seeds for sale. It is noted that the provisions of the said Act are applicable only for the notified varieties of seeds. Further even in respect of notified varieties of seeds no such certification is required, if the seeds are grown by a person and sold or delivered by him on his own premises direct to another person for being used by ....
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.... 2. The issue has been examined. The Board is of the view that the activities performed by the sovereign/public authorities under the provision of law are in the nature of statutory obligations which are to be fulfilled in accordance with law. The fee collected by them for performing such activities is in the nature of compulsory levy as per the provisions of the relevant statute, and it is deposited into the Government treasury. Such activity is purely in public interest and it is undertaken as mandatory and statutory function. These are not in the nature of service to any particular individual for any consideration. Therefore, such an activity performed by a sovereign/public authority under the provisions of law do....
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....e or statute cannot be considered as a consulting engineer service. However, the new service included in 2003 budget, namely 'technical inspection and certification services' would cover certification of all types including that of immovable property. Therefore, it is clarified that such services become taxable from the notified date. 11. Keeping in view the said two Circulars as also the provisions of the said Act and the Rules made thereunder, we have no hesitation in holding that the activities of the appellant are not covered by the said Circular dated 18.12.2006 and are chargeable to Service Tax under the Technical Inspection and Certification Service as enumerated in para 2 above. 12. We have also gone through the case laws ....