2018 (9) TMI 659

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.... the same judgment. 3. Sh. L. Patra Ld. Assistant Commissioner (AR) appearing on behalf of the Revenue reiterates the findings of the impugned order. 4. On careful consideration of the submission made by both the sides. We find that the appellant is similarly placed distributors of Amway India Enterprise Pvt. Ltd, as the various distributors involved in the judgment of Charanjeet Singh Khanuja (Supra), we find that in the said judgement the Division Bench of this Tribunal passed following order: "9. The appellants in the appeals ST/138 and 139/2009, ST/406/2010, ST/522 to 525, 257, 259, 433, 473, 502, 580, 1123, 1383, 1781 & 1802/2011, ST/56, 86, 126, 645/2012 and ST/1723-1724, 2337 and 2810/2012 and the respondents in the Appeals Nos. ST/851 to 854, 863, 864, 865, 866, 867, 868, 869, 870 and 878/2012 filed by the Revenue are distributors of Amway India Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. Amway operate their business of selling of their products under a Business Plan called Multi Level Marketing. As per the "Business Starter Guide of Amway India Enterprises Pvt. Ltd." placed on record, they appoint Distributors, who purchase their products and sell the same at the price not exceeding the MRP ....

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....oses of this sub-clause, "service in relation to promotion or marketing of service provided by the client" includes any service provided in relation to promotion or marketing of games of chance, organized, conducted or promoted by the client, in whatever form or by whatever name called, whether or not conducted online, including lottery, lotto, bingo; (iii) Any customer care service provided on behalf of the client; or (iv) Procurement of goods or services, which are inputs for the client; or x xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" 12. According to the Department, the activity of the assessees is "promotion or marketing or sale of the goods produced or provided by or belonging to the client." In our view, the activity which is covered under Section 19(i) is in relation to the promotion or marketing or sale of the goods produced by the client or provided by the client or belonging to the client. This expression, in our view, would not cover the sale of the goods by a person, which belong to him, as the activity of the promotion or marketing or sale of the goods by a person belonging to him would not constitute service. The assessees in these cases are distributors, who purchase the goods ....

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.... from Amway based on his own volume of purchase from Amway and the commission earned by him on the basis of the volume of purchases of Amway products made by his sales group i.e. group of second level of Distributors appointed by Amway on being sponsored by the Distributor. For quantifying the Service tax demand on the commission received from Amway on the volume of purchase made by the distributors sponsored /enrolled by a particular distributor i.e. the Distributor's sales group, these matters would have to be remanded to the Original Adjudicating Authority. 14. Another objection raised by the appellants in Appeals Nos. ST/138 and 139/2009, ST/406/2010, ST/522 to 525/2010, ST/257, 259, 433, 473, 502, 580, 1123, 1383, 1781 &1802/2011, ST/56, 86, 126, 645/2012 and ST/1723-1724, 2337 and 2810/2012 and the respondents in Appeals Nos. ST/851 to 854, 863, 864, 865, 866, 867, 868, 869, 870 and 878/2012 is that the assessees are individuals and during the period till 30-4-2006, Service tax was chargeable only on the services provided to a client by a commercial concern in relation to Business Auxiliary Service and the individual persons cannot be treated as Business concern. We do not ....

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....tention, on the other hand, is that the assessees neither obtained service tax registration nor did they declare their activities to the jurisdictional Service tax authorities nor did they file ST-3 Return and, therefore, they are guilty of suppression of relevant facts and deliberate violation of the provisions of Finance Act, 1994 and of the Rules made thereunder with intent to evade payment of tax. On considering the rival submissions on this point, we are of the view merely because the assessees did not apply for Service Tax Registration or did not file ST-3 Returns or did not declare their activities to the jurisdictional central excise authorities, it cannot be inferred that this was a willful act with intent to evade payment of service tax. We also take notice of the fact that in respect of appeals filed by the Revenue, the Commissioner (Appeals) after analyzing the activities of the assessees had taken the view that the same is not covered by the definition of "Business Auxiliary Service" under Section 65(105)(zzb) read with Section 65(19) of the Finance Act, 1994. When on the issue involved in this group of cases, there were two views in the Department itself, it cannot be....