TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (2) TMI 1320
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....rcing customers for their products i.e. home loans and personal loans w.e.f. 24.11.2001. Department took the view that these services fall under the category of "business auxiliary service" and are liable for service tax. Assessee had neither taken registration nor were discharging any service tax liability for the said services. Accordingly, a show cause notice dated 26.06.2007 was issued to appellants which culminated in an adjudication order dated 13-03-2008 wherein the original authority held that the activity rendered by assessee was classifiable under Business Auxiliary Service; that the commission/fee received by assessee to be treated as "cum-tax" value, confirmed demand of service tax liability of Rs. 10,43,402/- and education cess....
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....as ICICI Ltd. have engaged the respondents for particular variety of loans i.e. home loans and personal loans, hence services carried out by respondent specifically covered only under "business auxiliary service". 3. On the other hand, on behalf of the respondent, Ld. Consultant Shri B. Seetharamayya made oral submissions which can be summarised as under: 3.1 Their activities are correctly falling under "business support service" only and since that service came into effect only from 01-05-2006, there cannot be any service tax liability on them before that period. 3.2 In their case, the period of dispute is 01-07-2003 to 31-03-2005. Ld. Consultant submitted a copy of "sourcing agent agreement" between ICICI Home Finance Limited and Sh....
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....ng Agent" for "marketing" and "sourcing customers" for their products. From the extracts of the agreements reproduced in the order of the original authority, we are not able to find any requirement of assessee to do evaluation or of prospective customer or vendors. This being the case, we are unable to fathom how the lower appellate authority has taken the view that the assessee were only evaluating prospective customers with respect to their credit worthiness and process their loan applications and present them to ICICI. Based only on this premise, he has concluded that such evaluation activity has the essential character of support service of business or commerce, which became to be taxed only w.e.f. 1-5-2006; that therefore there cannot ....