TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (10) TMI 971
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....pellant is a service provider to their principal, namely, E.I. Dupont India Pvt.Ltd under an agreement dated 14.08.2014. As per agreement the following services are provided by the appellant to their principal:- "Work & Services: Agriculture Extension Services The Service Provider agrees to disseminate the knowledge of DuPont derived through years of scientific research in Crop protection techniques to farmers through training to facilitate better yield and productivity and in furtherance of the above objective perform all of the following functions relating to Agriculture Extension Services & farmer training activities including (i) Understand problems which a farmer face from pests while growing crops and then performing all farm....
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....ducted in the office of the appellant, it was observed by the audit team that the appellant was working a super distributor for one major pesticides/insecticides manufacturer and were engaged in marketing and promotion of pesticides/insecticide manufactured by their principal. The services undertaken by the appellant are relating to marketing and promotion of pesticides/insecticide which are taxable service under "Business Auxiliary Service". Therefore, a show cause notice was issued to the appellant for the period January, 2015 to March, 2016 on 13.4.2017 by invoking the extended period of limitation to demand of service tax from the appellant. Thereafter, the matter contested before the adjudicating authority stating that the appellant is....
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....nate the knowledge of DuPont derived through years of scientific research in Crop protection techniques to farmers through training to facilitate better yield and productivity and in furtherance of the above objective perform all of the following functions relating to Agriculture Extension Services & farmer training activities including (i) Understand problems which a farmer face from pests while growing crops and then performing all farmer training activities. (ii) Provide feed-back from farmers to Dupont on problems and constraints in crop protection. (iii) Create a linkage between farmers and Dupont to facilitate Dupont scientists to understand the crop requirement and develop solutions for crop protection. (iv) Explain the f....
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....t agricultural practices resulting in higher yields. Various factors affected the yields of a crop, such as (i) Soil type and conditions (ii) Time of sowing; (iii) Availability of water; (iv) Availability of nutrients; (v) Weather conditions; (vi) Weed management of water; (vii) Pest management; (viii) Disease control; (ix) Timely harvesting. The appellant trains the farmers in ways to bring the vital yield-affecting factors in its favour. The appellant also lays emphasis on agronomy, nutrition, water management etc. Further, the farmers are made aware of yield parameters. These trainings are conducted in the following formats: One to one format wherein Appellant interacts with farmers on one to one basis: Group format wherein Appe....
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...." 10. The appellant has provided above services to that effect the appellant has produced photograph. We have seen the photographs. In the photographs, nowhere it is coming out that the appellant is doing marketing and promotion of the product of their principal. Moreover, in the impugned order, the Ld. Commissioner has observed that the "Agricultural Extension Service" is of scientific research and knowledge by observing that "None of the supporting documents which the Noticee have submitted to substantiate their claim that they have been providing Agricultural Extension Service, could show that the farmers were being given any training through scientific research and knowledge to agriculture practices through farmer education and train....
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....roduct of their principal. For that, the appellant is getting separate commission on which they are discharging service tax liability. Therefore, on the basis of remuneration, it cannot be held that the appellant is providing service of marketing and promotion. 14. We further take note of the fact that the Agricultural Extension Services are not taxable under clause of Section 66D of the negative list which is reproduced as under:- "Section 66 (d) services relating to agricultural by way of: (i) Agricultural operations directly related to production of any agricultural produce including cultivation, harvesting, threshing, plant protection or testing. (ii) Supply of farm labour. (iii) Processes carried out at an agricultural f....