TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (2) TMI 959
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... The service tax was leviable under Chapter V of the Finance Act, 1994. The petitioner provided services of catering and housekeeping to offshore oil and gas industry on mobile installations. The petitioner claims to have international reputation in such catering services and had employed about 800 people either as permanent or as contractual/casual employees. They are dependent on the petitioner for their livelihood. It is claimed that the petitioner was paying taxes regularly, but on account of some recession in the industry from the year 2011-12, the petitioner faced financial difficulties. The customers did not make timely payments and that is why the petitioner stated that the crises followed. In para 5.4 of the petition, major outstandings of the petitioner are mentioned and it is claimed that the petitioner also reached a settlement with one of the debtors. It is claimed that though there was a settlement, still, the payments have not been made by one entity, namely, M/s. Gol Offshore Limited. 4. It is claimed that a visit was made by the investigation team and certain documents were seized. Thereafter, some records were called for and the petitioner pointed out that the ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....es Ltd. Holding STC No.AADCC6347AST001 and GST No.27AADCC6347A1ZZ-Reg... Ref : Your letter dated 10.05.2018, forwarded vide email of same date. **** With reference to the above subject, and your letter dated 10.05.2018, your attention is invited to the statement tendered by Shri Alfred Arambhan before the investigation Officer on 10.04.2018 and subsequent correspondence exchanged thereafter till date, through letters/emails. 1. In the above referred statement, you have voluntarily declared that the pending Service Tax liability for the period 2012-13 till June 2017 is worked out by you to be approximately Rs. 2.51 Crores. You have not provided any basis as to how you have worked out this pending liability. Besides this, you have also accepted that your company is liable to pay appropriate interest on the delayed payment of Service Tax. You had further stated that you have not worked out the Tax Liability of your company under GST regime and assured to provide the details thereof within a week's time. You also accepted that your company is also liable to pay appropriate interest thereon. You had further assured that the outstanding Tax liability alongwith appropriate....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....ITY IS PURELY ON YOU AND YOU CANNOT TAKE ANY SHELTER OR HAVE ANY RIGHT TO CLAIM ANY IMMUNITY FROM YOUR TAX LIABILITY BY CLAIMING THAT THE DEPARTMENT SHOULD MAKE RECOVERIES OF YOUR TAX DUES FROM YOUR DEBTORS ON YOUR BEHALF. The recovery mechanism prescribed under the Law is purely for the Department's purpose and no assessee has any right to claim any benefit of the same. 6. As regards raising funds by way of issuing warrants/shares, you have informed that the investors have already deposited 25% of the committed amount of Rs. 5.00 Crores. However, it appears that the said funds received is not utilised for payment of Service Tax dues, being a Crown's Debt. Further, you have stated that the balance funds would be raised only by June, 2019 and requested this office to accept the proposal to discharge entire dues by June, 2019. 7. All the above submissions made by you show that you are having a very casual approach towards the Service Tax liability for which you have not taken any concrete efforts since the visit of the officers from this Department on 28.03.2018. A period of more than one and half months have passed and you have paid only Rs. 20 Lakhs against the self-a....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... the footing that there is an admitted liability and that there is a default. The question is of taxability of services and a detailed representation was forwarded by the petitioner raising this issue. Today, the respondents are proceeding on the footing that the petitioner has never raised any dispute nor has it denied any liability. In fact, the position is otherwise. There is a specific issue raised and in that regard, our attention is invited to what is styled as a representation. It is claimed that in this representation, all the contested issues have been raised. It is claimed that if this is addressed by the authorities and after the petitioner is heard and an order is passed, then, that would serve the ends of justice. The petitioner has undertaken before us not to claim any refund of the taxes which have been paid. Further, the petitioner has also undertaken not to withdraw any sums from the bank accounts with the above two banks, save and except in ordinary and regular course of business. The petitioenr would not transfer any sums to the credit of these accounts to any entity or sole proprietary concerned of the Managing Director. Based on these undertakings, it is claime....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....t to pay the amount due from such person or the whole of the money when it is equal to or less than that amount; (ii) every person to whom a notice is issued under this section shall be bound to comply with such notice, and in particular, where any such notice is issued to a post office, banking company or any insurer, it shall not be necessary to produce any pass book, deposit receipt, policy or any other document for the purpose of any entry, endorsement or the like being made before payment is made, notwithstanding any rule, practice or requirement to the contrary; (iii) in a case where the person to whom a notice under this section is sent, fails to make the payment in pursuance thereof to the Central Government, he shall be deemed to be an assessee in default in respect of the amount specified in the notice and all the consequences of this Chapter shall follow; (c) the Central Excise Officer may, on an authorisation by the Principal Commissioner of Central Excise or Commissioner of Central Excise, in accordance with the rules made in this behalf, distrain any movable or immovable property belonging to or under the control of such person, and detain the same until t....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....titioner pointed out the nature of business and then urged that the petitioner's major clients went out of business leaving it with huge outstanding overheads. It has pointed out that it has taken all the contingency measures. It has also pointed out the hardship on account of the notices under section 87 of the Finance Act, 1994. What we have on record, therefore, is a request to withdraw these notices. These are on several grounds. The petitioner, in one of its communications has stated that it does not carry out any activities in India and therefore, the provisions of the Finance Act, 1994 do not apply. The petitioner, therefore, disputes its liability to pay service tax and interest. 14. To our mind, this issue, though raised by the petitioner at a belated stage, requires a consideration at the hands of the respondents. The petitioner has been consistently maintaining that their bank accounts need not be frozen. It has also set up a main and alternate case. It is apparent from the annexures to the writ petition that the respondents say that the petitioner has admitted the service tax liability as in July/August, 2018 of Rs. 2.51 crores. However, it is the respondents who....