2018 (5) TMI 916

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....ce tax of Rs. 1,40,53,000.00 payable 2005-06 to 2007-08 and other detriment consequences. The demand pertains to payment to various clients abroad and described as 'communication and system expenses' which was sought to be classified as 'online information data base access and/or retrieval service' taxable under section 65(105)(zh) of Finance Act, 1994. The show cause notice alleged that '5. On verification of the ledger accounts of the above said payments as submitted by them vide their letters dated 24.09.2010 and 04.10.2010 it appears that they paid the above said amounts as software maintenance charges and data communication charges Io their group companies stationed abroad. They appear to have paid the said charg....

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....n the group and it is the Contention of Learned Counsel for respondent that no consideration has been received for rendering any service and, even if it were, it would not conform to the definition of 'online information and database access and/or retrieval service'. 4.Having heard the rival submissions it would appear that the Tribunal in State Bank of India v. Commissioner of Service Tax [2014-TIOL2097-CESTAT-MUM] held that for taxation as provider of 'online information data base access and/or retrieval service' refers to data that does not belong to the recipient of service. The said decision examined the issue thus 8. First of all, we observe that revenue has not been able to controvert certain facts stated by the appellants. The....

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....ition in section 65(75) it is seen that the same describes the service to be "providing data or information retrieval or otherwise to a customer". In the present case, it has nowhere been disputed by revenue that the data centre is located abroad to which the foreign offices have access for data and its retrieval. The ownership of data is quite clearly with the SBI foreign offices. Equant have not provided any data for access/retrieval. They have simply enabled the connectivity. They have provided connectivity which enables the FOs to access/retrieve data online. The responsibility of Equant is to ensure that network VPN functions properly. The Commissioner has totally misread the meaning of "Services provided in relation to online informat....