2019 (1) TMI 504

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.... of overseas agents for destuffing the cargo from the containers sent by them from India at Hub port and reshipped the cargo to the intended destinations; that all the freight and other charges for such shipping of cargo is paid by the appellant to respective carrier; that appellant will remit the freight payable from the Hub port to the destination at a mutually agreed / pre-fixed rate to the party acting as their agent at the Hub port; that their main business is consolidation of the cargo; that they hire the containers depending upon the requirement, stuff the same with the cargo belonging to various exporters issue bill of lading; that they also pay hire charges for the container in India, hand over the container to the carrier / Liner ....

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....0,00,000/- under Section 78 of the Act. Hence this appeal. 2. When the matter came up for hearing, Ld. Advocate Ms. Radika Chandrasekar submits that the issue is no longer res inegra and has been consistently held by the Tribunal that services provided by a Multimodel Transport Operator cannot be identified as a taxable service under any taxing entry under Section 65 (105) ibid. Ld. Advocate relies upon case laws of Greenwich Meridian Logistics (I) Pvt. Ltd. Vs CST Mumbai - 2013 (43) STR 215 (Mumbai). Ld. Advocate also points out that the SCN proposed a demand of service liability under the category of BAS upto 30.4.2006 and thereafter under the category of BSS. She submits that proposal to classify identical activity under two different....

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..... Such a contract forecloses the allotment of such space by the shipping line or steamer agent with the risk of non-usage of the procured space devolving on the appellant. By no stretch is this assumption of risk within the scope of agency function. Ergo, it is nothing but a principal-to-principal transaction and the freight charges are consideration for space procured from shipping line. Correspondingly, allotment of procured space to shippers at negotiated rates within the total consideration in a multi-modal transportation contract with a consignor is another distinct principal-to-principal transaction. We, therefore, find that freight is paid to the shipping line and freight is collected from client-shippers in two independent transacti....