TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2015 (10) TMI 980
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....vice Tax (Appeals), Nagpur which has modified the liability of service tax determined by the Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise (Service Tax), Nagpur to the extent of Rs. 1,86,17,905/- for the period July 1997 to March 2001 while upholding the penalties imposed under section 76 and section 77 of Finance Act, 1994 by the original authority. 2. The appellant is a constituent laboratory of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and is registered under the Registration of Societies Act, 1960. It has an elaborate mandate encompassing the field of environmental science and engineering since its creation in 1958. About 125 scientists from various disciplines figure on its rolls and, supported by technical staff, undertake vari....
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....us seeking to have the impugned order set aside on the ground that they, being a society, are excluded from the definition of service provider and that the identified projects are not covered by the scope of section 65(31). 4. On perusal of the impugned order, we find that the first appellate authority has scrutinized 107 projects of NEERI executed during the relevant period to ascertain liability to tax as provider of "consulting engineer" service against the claim of the appellant that they have rendered service in the category of "scientific or technical consultancy" and, in deciding the matter, has almost entirely relied upon the entry in Wikipedia on the subject of environmental engineer. The learned Counsel for the appellant and lear....
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....nt to the primary dispute before us viz., classification of the service rendered by the appellant in execution of certain specified projects. 6. The learned Counsel and learned Departmental Representative reiterated the grounds of appeal and the findings in impugned order respectively. We observe that the appellate authority has segregated the 107 disputed projects as follows: -Environmental Biotechnology (5) -Environmental Impact Assessment (56) -Environmental Monitoring (38) -Environmental Policy Analysis (7) -Hazardous Waste Management (1) before going on to conclude that these are engineering projects. In the absence of any other records before us, we have necessarily to fall back on the relevant provisions of the taxing statute t....
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.... especially in Great Britain, as the manufacture or assembly of engines, machine tools, and machine parts. .... The function of the scientist is to know, while that of the engineer is to do. The scientist adds to the store of verified, systematized knowledge of the physical world; the engineer brings this knowledge to bear on practical problems. Engineering is based principally on physics, chemistry, and mathematics and their extensions into materials science, solid and fluid mechanics, theremodynamics, transfer and rate processes, and systems analysis. Unlike the scientist, the engineer is not free to select the problem that interests him; he must solve problems as they arise; his solution must satisfy conflicting requirements. Usual....
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....n which engineers acquire their professional qualification. By this token, "consulting engineer" service is what a qualified engineer does, individually or as a set of individuals, for another entity. And these are, broadly speaking, civil, mechanical, electrical electronic, chemical and all of them deal with transformation of matter from one form to another. Scientific, on the other hand according to Merriam Webster dictionary, means 'of, relating to, or exhibiting the methods or principles of science'. To the extent that a project does not advise upon the manner in which matter is to be altered or constructed to solve one or more problems and the activity is one of observing phenomena, enhancing knowledge base and contributing to data....
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....ion and activity on water and air quality as well as on soil, flora and fauna. The conclusions of such studies are examined in the public or a restricted domain to impose such terms and conditions of usage on the project proposal to mitigate and compensate for degradation. When the project developer decides to comply with the terms and conditions, action thereon for design and engineering of the structure and usage would be within the realm of engineering. Hence, by no stretch can such assessments be deemed to involve engineering. 11. The appellate authority, in considering the 38 environmental monitoring projects, does not entertain any doubt that that these, besides actual measurement, involve predicting, evaluation and suggestions for r....