2015 (2) TMI 272

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....ce dated 12.10.2007 alleging therein that the appellant which is a Life Insurance Company have wrongly utilized input credit amounting to Rs. 5,44,65,756/- availed on their various inputs, for payment of Service Tax against Agency Commission, which was done by the appellant as person liable for paying Service Tax as per the provisions of Rule 2(1)(d)(iii) of Service Tax Rules, 1994, violating the provisions of Rule 3(4)(e) of Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 and as such failed to pay Service Tax amounting to Rs. 5,44,65,756/-. The second allegation under the show-cause notice was that the appellant have utilized excess CENVAT Credit amounting to Rs. 6,50,50,594/- violating the provisions of Rule 6(3)(c) of Cenvat Credit Rules,2004, for payment of ....

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....76, 77 and 78 of the Finance Act, 1994 in Appeal No. ST/270/09. 3. Heard the learned Counsel for the assessee and the Revenue. 4. The issue in appeal is no longer res integra as the same in the appellant's own case and others have been decided by a co-ordinate Bench of this Tribunal (of which I was also a Member) by the Final Order dated 22.2.2014 reported at Appeal No. ST/64, 66, 198/08 & ST/237 & 218/12 . The operative part of the order is being reproduced herein below for ready reference:- 5. We have carefully considered the submissions made by both sides. 5.1 Prior to 19.4.2006, Rules 2(p), (q) and (r) read as follows:- p) "output service" means any taxable service, provided by the provider of taxable service, to a cu....

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.... prior to 19.4.2006 as also w.e.f. 19.4.2006, the meaning of the expression 'output service', 'provider of taxable service' and 'person liable for paying service tax' remain the same. Since in the case of Insurance Auxiliary Service, the liability to pay Service Tax is on the service recipient in terms of Rule 2 (1)(d)(iii) of the Service Tax Rules, 1994, the appellants are the providers of the output service as defined in law. Therefore, the appellants are entitled to avail CENVAT Credit on the input services used for providing the output service. Consequently, there is no bar in utilization of CENVAT Credit for payment of Service Tax on Insurance Auxiliary Service by the appellants. This is the settled legal positi....

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....he appeal." 5.3 In view of the above decisions of the various High Courts, the decisions of the Tribunal relied upon by the Revenue become irrelevant. Accordingly, we hold that the appellants in present appeals were entitled to utilize CENVAT Credit of the Service Tax paid on various input services for discharge the Service Tax liability on the output service of "Insurance Auxiliary Service". 5.4 We also note that there is no one to one correlation required between the input service and the output service under the CENVAT Credit Scheme and, therefore, the demands confirmed against the appellants for recovery of CENVAT Credit availed by them for discharging Service Tax liability on Insurance Auxiliary Service is clearly unsustainable a....