2018 (7) TMI 1061

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....een maintained in a factory, as required under the Factories Act, 1948 when such food or beverages are prepared and served by a person other than employees of factory itself. From allegations leveled in the SCN, it is clear that the department‟s interpretation of exemption Notification is that the said canteen should be run by factories themselves. The Adjudicating Authority has taken the same view. The appellant on the other hand argued that service provided in relation to serving of food and beverages from such canteen by the appellant as per agreement with factory management would be eligible for exemption as the same is service provided in relation to serving of food/beverages in the Canteen of the Factory maintained under the Fac....

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.... 3. This being so, the Adjudicating Authority has sought to whittle down the scope to those canteens "maintained by and run by the factory themselves". The words in the Notification do not support this view inasmuch as the Notification uses the phrase "canteen maintained in a factory" and not "maintained by and/or run by a factory". If the intent of the Notification were to be as interpreted in the impugned Order-in-Original, then the wording in the Notification should have been "maintained by and/or run by the factory". Therefore, a narrow interpretation of SI. No.19A of the Notification, based on the fact that an outdoor caterer is maintaining the canteen, is neither warranted nor contemplated in the Notification. 4. There is yet ano....

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....nd not the outdoor catering services which is used to provide such service. The provisions of Section 66F(1) are extracted as below:- "Unless otherwise specified, reference to a service (herein referred to as main service) shall not include reference to a service which is used for providing main service." 6. It emanates from the facts that the appellant is entering into agreement with factories for providing catering services in their canteens, for the employees as per rates agreed upon for not only supplies but also serving of food and beverages. In the negative list based service tax regime "canteen" and "outdoor caterer" is not defined. Therefore, it would be prudent to take recourse to definitions provided under the Finance ....