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2018 (1) TMI 981

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....sible to ensure that the coal lifted and transported was quality specified in the contract and the payment terms were to some extent linked with the quality of the coal supplied. Also the supplier BLA was to raise invoices on GIL. However, the payments of the same were to be made by the appellant and they were required to collect these bills from BLA and raise their own bills from quantity of coal supplied, on a weekly basis. Accordingly, the appellants, on the premise that the service rendered by them is primarily a transportation service charged Service Tax in the invoice under the category of Goods Transport Agency Services after availing the benefit of abatement of 75% in terms of Notification No. 32/2004-ST dated 03.12.2004. The case o....

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....on identical issue of the appellant itself, this Tribunal has already passed an Order No.A/89380/17/STB dated 06.09.2017. The entire facts and the contract is same in that case. In the present case, only difference is of the period, in the earlier Tribunal s order period was 2005-06 to 2009-10 and in the present case period is 2010-11. We have not come across any change of circumstances or in the law related to the present issue. In the earlier order dated 06.09.2017 Tribunal has passed the following order:- "5. The case of Revenue for re-classification lies in the breadth of responsibility assigned to the appellant in the agreements. It is contended that the appellant is not a mere transporter of goods but also supervises, on behalf of M....

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....rcumstances as narrated in the decision, M/s Coal Handlers Pvt Ltd was "2 .................required to undertake the following activities on behalf of the Principal companies: (i) following up the allotment of coal rakes by the Railways; (ii) expediting and supervising the loading and labeling of rail wagons; (iii) drawing the samples of coal loaded on the wagons; (iv) complying with the formalities relating to payments for freight to the Railways; (v) dispatching of rail receipts to Ambuja companies and cited with approval the decision of the Larger Bench of the Tribunal in Larsen & Toubro Ltd v. Commissioner of Central Excise, Chennai [2006(3) STR 321 (Tri-LB)] which, though deciding upon the coverage of commission agent withi....

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....tained in Section 65(25) of the Act. xxxxxx 11. ................As is clear from the plain meaning of the aforesaid expression, it would cover those activities which pertain to clearing of the goods and thereafter forwarding those goods to a particular destination, at the instance and on the directions of the principal. xxxxx 12. ...............Movement of the coal is under the contract of sale between the coal company and the Ambuja companies. Even the coal is loaded on to the railway wagons by the coal company. The goods are not under any legal detention from which they need to be freed by the appellant. Not only this, destination of the goods is known to the coal company and the railway rakes are placed by the coal company for th....

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....ustomers on instruction of that principal. Such a function can hardly be re-designed to describe the very reverse for delivery of procurements required by the principal. 9. It would appear that the tax authority in its anxiety to deny the abatement that is the entitlement of provider of goods transport agency service sought to bring the activity under an omnibus head that being bereft of a specific definition could be resorted to for that purpose, failed to identify the various services that were elements of this composite contract. Some of those could possibly have been taxable services. Nevertheless, section 65A of Finance Act, 1994 lays down the principles that should guide classification of composite services. It would appear that tra....