2019 (10) TMI 215

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....ey had rendered 'rent-a-cab service' to M/s Spanco Telesystem & Solutions Ltd for the period from November 2003 to September 2007. 2. Learned Chartered Accountant, appearing for the appellant, contends that the first appellate authority, by erroneously placing reliance on the decision of the Tribunal in Express Tours and Travels Pvt Ltd v. Commissioner of Central Excise, Vadodara [2006 (3) STR 664 (Tri-Mumbai),] erred in disregarding the material circumstances that distinguishes their transaction from the dispute in the said decision. According to him, vehicles had been made available to their customer, a unit functioning under the Software Technology Park scheme, for consideration denominated in per kilometre of usage whereas the taxabl....

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....the decisions cited by the Learned Chartered Accountant on behalf of the appellant, the consistent thread is that classification as 'rent-a-cab service' was contingent upon the purpose for which the vehicles are hired and the scheme of consideration taken together. It would appear that the recipient intended to pick up and drop employees between home and work place and, instead of maintaining its own fleet or sourcing a fleet belonging to another, entered into an agreement with the appellant for such pickup and drop. The recipient, instead of getting cabs outsourced, got the responsibility of picking up and dropping outsourced to the appellants. The distinction between the two is highlighted in re Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corpn, hol....

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....citizens and not a rent-a-cab scheme operation. We find that the definition itself excludes BMTC from the category of service providers. 7. Coming to the agreement also, we find that the appellant did not collect a monthly rent as observed by the Commissioner in his order. The charges are made on the number of kilometers actually run multiplied by the amount fixed per kilometer. In rent-a-cab scheme a monthly rent is fixed and minimum number of kilometer may also be fixed crossing which the customer may have to pay extra. If the number of kilometers falls below the number and even if it is substantially low, yet the customers would be liable to pay the entire rent. That is not the case here. Moreover as submitted by the learned cou....