2014 (9) TMI 783

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.... Appellate Commissioner allowed seven appeals preferred by the assessee against the several adjudication orders whereby assessee's claims for refund of service tax were rejected by orders of the Deputy Commissioner, Central Excise, Patiala. 3. The petitioner is a banking company registered under provisions of Companies Act, 1956 and regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The RBI in exercise of its authority conferred by Section 45 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 appointed the assessee as an agent, inter alia to receive remittances of taxes on RBI's behalf to the credit of the consolidated fund. For executing this function RBI paid a commission to the assessee. The commiss....

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....ax Rules, 1944;       (iii) taxable services received in India from outside India by the Reserve Bank of India under Section 66A of the Finance Act, 1994. 7. The claim of the assessee based on Notification 22/2006-ST was accepted by the appellate Commissioner. The judgement of a ld. Division Bench of this Tribunal in M/s Canara Bank Vs. CST, Bangalore - 2012-TIOL-790-CESTAT-AHM, reiterated in Union of India Vs. CCE - 2013-TIOL-343-CESTAT-MUM, support the view recorded in the impugned lower appellate order. 8. Revenue seeks stay of operation of the impugned order since qua that order there arises the liability to refund the service tax remitted by the assessee. Ld. Consultant for the assessee would however c....

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....an agent of the RBI rendering services under authorisation granted by RBI qua provisions of Section 45 of the RBI Act 1934; and since taxable services provided by RBI to any person are exempted from the levy of service tax under clause (i) of the Notification, the assessee as the agent of the RBI is equally excluded from the liability to tax. 13. The above contention does not prima facie commend acceptance (though we notice that the issues stands settled in favour of the assessee by the judgement in M/s Canara Bank). 14. The power to grant exemption from the liability to tax is conferred on the Central Government under Section 93 of the Act in plenitudinous terms. Such exemption may be granted either in a specific case or in respect o....