2019 (9) TMI 122

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....h April 2016. The facts of the case in brief are that the appellant is a Public Limited Company registered as a Non-Banking Finance Company under Section 45 IA of the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934. They entered into a Guarantee Fee Agreement on 15th January 2010 with M/s Dexia Micro-Credit Fund, Luxembourg (Dexia for short), a public limited company registered in that country. As per the agreement Dexia agreed to provide a guarantee to Standard Chartered Bank, London in relation to the amount borrowed by the appellant from Standard Chartered Bank Hyderabad. In lieu of the guarantee provided by Dexia, the appellant paid a guarantee fee to Dexia. They also entered into a similar agreement guarantee agreement with M/s Cordaid, Netherlands [Co....

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....the lessee; (iii) the lease payment is calculated so as to cover the full cost of the asset together with the interest charges; and (iv) the lessee is entitled to own, or has the option to own, the asset at the end of the lease period after making the lease payment; (ii) Omitted (iii)merchant banking services; (iv) Securities and foreign exchange (forex) brokinq, and purchase or sale of foreign currency, including money changing; (v) asset management including portfolio management, all forms of fund management, pension fund management, custodial, depository and trust services, (vi) advisory and other auxiliary financial services including investment and portfolio research and ad....

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.... also imposed penalties under Section 77 & 78 of the Finance Act which was upheld by the First Appellate authority. Hence this appeal. 3. Learned counsel for the appellant submits that in the first place, the services which have been provided are not in the form of bank guarantee at all. Bank guarantee is a guarantee provided by a bank. What is provided in their case is a form of corporate guarantee because it is provided by a company and not by a bank. Therefore the services which they received are clearly not covered under the definition of banking and other financial services. Her second line of argument was that they were audited before the show-cause notice was issued therefore it cannot be held that they had suppressed any facts. T....

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....authority and by the first appellate authority. He argues that the appellants have not disclosed to the department that they were availing the benefit of these services and paying an amount to their over-seas service providers. Therefore, the extended period of limitation can be invoked. On merits he would argue that although the companies which have provided the services are themselves not banks what was provided was essentially in the nature of a bank guarantee for the appellant. This guarantee assures that if the appellant defaults in payment to M/s Stndard Chartered Bank or to M/s Robo India, the guarantor company will indemnify the banks against such loss. The case of Sterlite Industries Ltd Vs CCE [2019 (2)TMI 1249 (CESTAT-Madras)] re....