2021 (4) TMI 518

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....e Appellant Shri M. Jagan Babu, Authorized Representative (A.R.) for the Respondent ORDER The only issue that was urged on behalf of the appellant, was the levy of penalty under Section 78 of the Finance Act, 1994. 2. A Show Cause Notice dated 26.04.2018 was issued covering the following periods: (i) 01.07.2012 to 31.05.2015; (ii) 01.06.2015 to 31.10.2015; (i....

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....and relied on the findings of lower authorities. 4. Heard the rival contentions, gone through the documents placed on record and have also gone through the decisions relied upon during the course of arguments. 5.1 Penalty under Section 78 of the Finance Act, 1994 is imposed when there is non-levy, short levy, short payment or erroneous refund by reason of fraud, collusion, wilful mis-stateme....

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....plained that payments made to advocates on behalf of customers was debited to the concerned customer account and accordingly, details of such payment was neither captured in the system of the bank nor was there any regulatory requirement for the same. The draft Order-in-Original, however, has ignored the very taxability without clearing the above doubts. This is sufficient to hold that the appella....

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....ssee being a public sector undertaking of the Government of India is also an additional factor to hold that any mala fide intention to evade payment of Service Tax would not be attributed, to levy penalty under Section 78 ibid. This view finds support in : (i) M/s. Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation v. Commissioner of Central Tax, Bangalore North [Service Tax Appeal No. 224 o....