TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (9) TMI 205
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....ain appellant assessee) are engaged in manufacturing and retail marketing of branded readymade garments. They have their factory of production and are registered with Central Excise Department. They have a separate administrative corporate office where the accounts are maintained. The appellants own a chain of retail outlets to market their garments. They also sell through direct commission agents and also through dealers appointed in different regions of the country as direct sales. All these three types of marketing outlets are supplied with their goods manufactured in their factory, either directly from the factory or on payment of excise duty or through centralised warehouses where duty paid goods were kept. All activities are controlled by the corporate office. 3. The goods manufactured by the main appellant assessee are subjected to Central Excise duty in terms of tariff value fixed under Section 3 of Central Excise Act, 1944 read with Notification No.20/2001 CE(NT) dated 30.04.2001 as amended. Apart from direct sales of garments to dealers from the factory, substantial portion of production is stock transferred to own warehouses/own retail outlets/consignment agents. Such s....
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....or guarding factory of the Appellant, retail outlets, warehouses of the company 72,573 6 Legal & Professional Service tax paid on the service received from advocates and other professional such as chartered accounts, fashion designer, consultants, etc. 2,59,453 7 Advertisement Service tax paid on the advertising services used for advertise the products manufactured and sold by the Appellant in print and other modern advertising media 86,486 8 Insurance Service tax paid on the insurance services used to insure the building, stock in trade and furniture & fixtures at factory, warehouses, retail outlets owned by the Appellant to safeguard against theft, fire, rioting and other natural calamities. 70,208 9 Software & Website maintenance and development Service tax paid on software & website development and maintenance services which is used for running nationwide inventory and sales control a company owned retail outlets, warehouses and commission agents. The system is so advanced, each movement of a single garment can be monitored until it has been sold to consumer from any location across country by the company owned retail outlet or commission agent 24,990 10 Comm....
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....te that the main point of dispute in these appeals is the determination of 'place of removal' of excisable goods. The main appellant-assessee categorically stated that they transfer their goods to their warehouses from where they further transport them to the retail outlets or warehouses of their commission agents, from where the goods were sold. Hence, it was pleaded that place of removal in terms of Section 4 of Central Excise Act 1044 should be retail outlet/warehouses of commission agents. The goods remain in their ownership, till the time of sale from these retail outlets owned by them or up to the warehouses of commission agents, as the case may be. Freight also is paid by the main appellant-assessee up to the retail outlets/commission agents warehouses. We note that the original adjudicating authority fell in error in arriving at the correct factual position regarding 'place of removal.' In fact, we note the Commissioner (Appeals) in his order dated !4.03.2014 has examined these issues in great detail. We are in agreement with the findings of the Commissioner (Appeals). The relevant portion of the said findings are as below: "7.1 In order to seek reply to these observations....
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....k transfer basis; iv) The security services used for guarding factory, retail outlets and warehouses of the company; v) legal and professional services received from advocates and other professionals such as chartered accountant, fashion designers, consultants etc.; vi) the advertising services used to advertise the products manufactured and sold by the appellants in print and other modern advertising media; vii) the insurance services used to insure the building, stock in trade and furniture & fixtures at factory, warehouses and retail outlets owned by the appellants to safeguard against theft, fire, rioting and other natural calamities; viii) software & website maintenance and development services used for running nation wide inventory and sales control at company owned retail outlets, warehouses and commission agents; ix) the commission charge paid for receiving the Business Auxiliary Services from the commission agents who earn commission on sale of goods on behalf of the appellants; and x) on the services used for organizing the annual general meetings of the company. 7.2 On true and fair construction of Rule 2(l) of the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004, insofar as is relevant to t....
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....the appellant since the goods are not sold at the factory gate but are sold at the retail outlets, therefore, by virtue of the express provisions of Section 4 (3) (c) (iii) of the Central Excise Act, 1944, the place of removal in the case of appellant will be the retail outlets from where goods are sold. This view is also forfeited by the relied upon case law of Metro Shoes Act Pvt Ltd Vs Commissioner of Central Excise, Mumbai-i (Supra) where CESTAT, Mumbai has held as follows in para 6: "6......."1) Input service "means any service, - (i) Used by a provider of taxable service for providing an Output service; or (ii) Used by the manufacturer, whether directly or indirectly, in or in relation to the manufacture of final products and clearance of final products from the place of removal and includes services used in relation to setting up, modernisation, renovation or repairs of a factory, premises of provider of output service or an office relating to such factory or premises, advertisement or sales promotion, market research, storage up to the place of removal, procurement of inputs, activities relating to business, such as accounting, auditing, financing, recruitment and qu....
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....e, Noida (Supra) wherein paras 4.2.4, 5.1, 6.1 & 7 it has been held that if deliveries are on FOR destination basis then the point of sale will be treated as 'place of removal' and CENVAT Credit upto such place of sale will be admissible." 10. Regarding the dispute relating to registration of the main appellant assessee as ISD, we are in agreement with the findings of the Commissioner (Appeals). On examination of provision of Rule 2(m) of the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004, the Commissioner (Appeals) clearly recorded that, a manufacturer who wants to avail benefit of Service Tax should get registered himself as service provider and then he will be able to account for all the input Service Tax paid in the headquarters and distribute the same to various units. After examining the provisions of Rule 7 of Cenvat Credit Rules, the Commissioner (Appeals) concluded that as the manufacturer was having various retail outlets and office besides the factory for manufacture, in order to utilise the credit of input service got registered with the department as ISD. 11. In view of the above discussion and analysis, we find that the impugned order dated 30.09.2013 of the Commissioner is liable to b....