2005 (11) TMI 1

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....the needy during the period of dispute, after getting registered for such purpose with the Department. They committed default of payment of service tax for the period Oct. '01 to Mar. '03, for which the payments were made in the months of June and July, 2003. The delay of these payments varied from 75 to 556 days. There was also delay in the filing of service tax returns for three months. Citing t....

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.... to tax on the assessee under Section 76 of the Act. It imposed a separate penalty of Rs. 3,000/- on them under Section 77. The decision of the original authority was upheld by the first appellate authority. Hence this appeal. 2.Ld. Consultant for the appellants submits that, under the Central Excise law, any penalty was not imposable where the amount of duty in dispute was paid prior to issuan....

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....nt has cited the Tribunal's Larger Bench decision in ETA Engineering Ltd. v. Commissioner of Central Excise, Chennai [2004 (174) E.L.T. 19 (Tri.-L.B.)], wherein the assessee was found to have had a bona fide doubt whether the activity was taxable under the Finance Act, 1994 or not and it was held that such doubt was a reasonable cause for not paying service tax in time. 3.Ld. SDR reiterates the....

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....heir reply to the show cause notice, for delay of payments of service tax, is financial crisis. Financial crisis is a universal plea, which could be made by any assessee. If it is accepted as coming within the meaning of the expression "reasonable cause" under Section 80 ibid, the penal provisions of Sections 76 to 79 of the Finance Act will be just dead letters. This cannot be the legislative int....