2018 (6) TMI 1431

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....t the appellant is a proprietary firm and is engaged in providing material handling services to various business concerns, such as, factories, mining, project sites, worksites etc. . The appellant has been providing Hydra/Cranes and other various material handling equipments on rent basis to various business establishments. The Department was of the view that the appellants had evaded payment of service tax by not getting themselves registered under the service tax category of "Support Services of Business or Commerce" and they should have paid the service tax on the charges received by them on supply of material handling equipments etc. provided by them to various business establishments. The Department had issued show-cause notice to the ....

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....service for levy of service tax under the Finance Act, 1994, proves that the "supply of tangible goods" was previously not leviable to service tax. In this regard, the ld.Counsel has relied upon the judgement of the Hon'ble Bombay High Court in the case of Indian National Shipowners' Association Vs. Union of India : 2009 (14) S.T.R. 289 (Bom.), wherein the Hon'ble High Court has held that the introduction of new entry under the provisions of Service Tax Act, denotes that such service was not previously covered under the service tax leviability ; (iii) The ld.Counsel for the appellants has also contended that the Department has tried to cover the activity of the appellant under the category of "support Services of Business or Commer....

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....fact proves that the activity, such as supply of cranes and other material handling equipments etc., were not covered in any of the taxable services previous to 16.05.2008 which were leviable to service tax and therefore, the legislature in their prudence had brought in a new category of service under the name of "supply of tangible goods" service for leviability of service tax under the Finance Act, 1994. We are of the opinion that primarily, we agree with the arguments advanced by the ld.Counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants that the introduction of new category of service itself proves that such activity was not under the service tax net before 16.05.2008. We are also of the view that the supply of "tangible goods" cannot be cons....

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....g the above view, we also take shelter of this Tribunal's decision in the case of Paradise Investments (supra). The relevant extracts are reproduced here below : " 5.Heard both sides and perused the records. "Support service of business of commerce" is defined in Section 65(104c) of the Finance Act, 1994 is extracted herein below :- ' "Support services of business or commerce" means services provided in relation to business or commerce and includes evaluation of prospective customers, telemarketing, processing of purchase orders and fulfilment services, information and tracking of delivery schedules, managing distribution and logistics, customer relationship management services, accounting and processing of transactions, o....