2020 (6) TMI 122

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....mart Car Driving Licence and also paper learning licences. The said work has been performed by the appellant based on Sarathi Web platform which was made available by the Central Government. The activity undertaken by the appellants was to capture the data and photograph of applicants for the driving licences as well as learning licences and to prepare a smart card/paper licence and to submit to the RTO for further issuance to the applicant. The appellants are allowed to collect a consideration for the same. Revenue opining that the services undertaken by the appellant fall under the category of 'Business Auxiliary Services' as defined under Section 65 (19) (vi) of Finance Act, 1994, issued a show-cause notice demanding service tax of Rs. 5....

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....d by a sovereign/public authority under the provisions of law does not constitute provision of taxable service to a person and, therefore, no service tax is leviable on such activities. 3. However, if such authority performs a service, which is not in the nature of statutory activity and the same is undertaken for a consideration not in the nature of statutory fee/levy, then in such cases, service tax would be leviable, if the activity undertaken falls within the ambit of a taxable service." 5.1. Tribunal in the case of Smart Chip Limited (supra) has gone into the issue has also observed as under: "8. Added to above observations made, we are also unable to find how Section 65(19)(iv) of Finance Act, 1994 comes to rescue of Revenue. The....

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....ong as it does not transgress any specific restriction embodies in the Constitution. (iv) Service tax is a levy on the event of service. (v) The concept of service tax is an economic concept. (vi) 'Consumption of service' as in case of 'consumption of goods' satisfies human needs. (vii) Service tax is a value added tax which in turn is a general tax applicable to all commercial activities involving provision of service. (viii) Value added tax is a general tax as well as destination based consumption tax leviable on services provided within the country. (ix) The principle of equivalence is in-built into the concept of service tax. (x) The activity undertaken in a transaction can have two components, namely, activity undertaken ....