AI Drafter 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (4) TMI 602
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....f interest on the amount of Service Tax of Rs. 1,16,535/- under Section 75 of the Finance Act, 1994; iii) I impose penalty of Rs. 100/- for everyday during which such failure continues or at the rate of 1% of Rs. 1,16,535/- per month whichever is higher, starting with the first day after due date till the date of actual payment of outstanding amount of service tax subject to maximum of fifty per cent of amount of Service Tax confirmed i.e. Rs. 1,16,535/- under Section 76 of the Finance Act, 1994; iv) I impose a penalty of Rs. 10,000/- on the noticee under Section 77(1) (a) of the Finance Act, 1994 for contravening the provisions of Section 69 of the Finance Act, 1994 read with Rule 4 of the Service Tax Rules, 1994; v) I impose penalty of Rs. 20,000/- per return under Section 70 of the Finance Act, 1994 read with Rule 7C of the Service Tax Rules, 1994 upon the noticee for non filing of ST-3 returns." 2.1 Proceedings were initiated against the appellants for demanding service tax under the category of 'Business Support Services". 2.2 During the course of scrutiny of the documents of M/s. Air Liquide India Holding Pvt. Ltd., it was revealed that M/s. A....
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....ded thereto, we are of the prima facie view that the appellant's activity of providing storage tanks and machinery at the premises of their clients for which rental are charged, is not covered by definition of "support service of business or commerce" as this expression, as defined in Section 65(104c), covers totally different type of activities - "services in relation to business or commerce, including evaluation of prospective customers, tele-marketing, procuring purchase orders, managing distribution and logistic, customer relations, accounting and processing of transactions, formulation of customer service and pricing policy, infrastructure support service etc. which are the supporting services required for the main business - manufacturing, service or trading. Even the inclusive portion of the definition of "Infrastructure support service", as given in the Explanation specifically covers only the services relating to office infrastructure. Moreover, in accordance with the principle of Noscitur a Sociis, the expression - "Services in relation to business or commerce" in the definition of "Support Service of Business or Commerce" in Section 65(104c) would get its colour from the....
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....ments, amusements, betting and gambling but would only emphasise the attribute which is common to the group. If luxuries is understood as meaning something which is purely for enjoyment and beyond the necessities of life, there can be no doubt that entertainments, amusements, betting and gambling would come within such understanding. Additionally, entertainments, amusements, betting and gambling are all activities. 'Luxuries' is also capable of meaning an activity and has primarily and traditionally been defined as such. It is only derivatively and recently used to connote an article of luxury. One can assume that the coupling of these taxes under one entry was not fortuitous but because of these common characteristics. 70. Where two or more words susceptible of analogous meaning are clubbed together, they are understood to be used in their cognate sense. They take, as it were, their colour from and are qualified by each other, the meaning of the general word being restricted to a sense analogous to that of the less general. As said in Maxwell on the Interpretation of Statutes 12th Edn. P.289. "Words, and particularly general words, cannot be read in isolation; th....
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....ple of 'noscitur a sociis'. The suggestion was rejected in the following language : "It must be borne in mind that noscitur a sociis is merely a rule of construction and it cannot prevail in cases where it is clear that the wider words have been deliberately used in order to make the scope of the defined word correspondingly wider. It is only where the intention of the Legislature in associating wider words with words of narrower significance is doubtful, or otherwise not clear that the present rule of construction can be usefully applied. It can also be applied where the meaning of the words of wider import is doubtful; but, where the object of the Legislature in using wider words is clear and free of ambiguity, the rule of construction in question cannot be pressed into service". (p. 614) 73. We do not read this passage as excluding the application of the principle of noscitur a sociis to the present case since it has been amply demonstrated with reference to authority that the meaning of the word "luxury" in Entry 62 is doubtful and has been defined and construed in different senses. 74. In Black Diamond Beverages v. Commercial Tax Officer (1998) 1 SCC....