2015 (12) TMI 220

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....t of India. The appellant is established with a mandate to promote the Software Technology Park (STP) scheme. The appellant provides different types of services to STP units established in the park and provide following kinds of services viz., Datacom Services; Incubation Service; Project and Consulting Service and Statutory Services, as specified under the STP and EHTP schemes. The appellant is registered and paying service tax on renting of immovable services and online database access services regularly and there is no dispute on that aspect. The dispute has arisen as to whether the appellant has to discharge service tax on charges made by them on STP units for certification of exports on the basis of SOFTEX forms submitted by the export....

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....the disputed activities, it transpires that under STP scheme, the Appellant is rendering services, for a consideration, to its clients. * STPI is a registered society and is functioning as an autonomous organisation and not as a government department as per their own admission. Further, the activities performed by the sovereign/ public authorities under the provision of law are only in the nature of statutory obligations which are to be fulfilled in accordance with law. * Prima facie, it is observed that the services of the STPI scheme are optional and available only to registered persons on payment of a prescribed fees. In other words, fees collected by STPI is not in the form of a compulsory levy and is not deposited int....

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.... the Foreign Exchange Management Act read with Rule 6 of the Foreign Exchange Management (Export of Goods and Services), Regulations, 2000 provides for the authority to whom declaration is to be furnished and the manner of dealing with the declaration. Section 6C specifically provides for declaration by the STP units in for SOFTEX which is issued by the Appellant. * Moreover, the entire control and operation of the Appellant including funding vests with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (ME & IT). The constitution of the ECOD of STPI consists of the members of the Ministry of Information Technology itself. * The Order has held that since the fees collected by the Appellant is not directly credited into....