TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (4) TMI 47
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.... note, nor is engaged in door to door delivery of the parcels booked by Ashapura. For the transportation of said parcels, GSRTC receives consideration as per the agreement. 5. GSRTC submits that Ashapura is a courier agency or GTA. 6. GSRTC submits that the said activity is exempt in terms of Sr No 18 of Notification No 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) which reads as follows: Services by way of transportation of goods- (a) by road except the services of- (i) a goods transportation agency; (ii) a courier agency; (b) by inland waterways. 7. GSRTC submits that the activity will be taxable when it is of a courier agency or a goods transportation agency. Except that, all other activity of road transportation is exempt. 8. GSRTC submits as follows: i. As per Para 2(u) of Notification No 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate), "courier agency" means any person engaged in the door-to-door transportation of time-sensitive documents, goods or articles utilising the services of a person, either directly or indirectly, to carry or accompany such documents, goods or articles; the following are the essential elements to treat an activity in the category of ....
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....3) 87 ITR 703 (Guj) A person can, therefore, be said to be 'engaged in' providing a service, if he carries on such a service, not as an isolated transaction, but as an organized and fairly continuous activity. In the present context, to fit the activity of a person in the definition of courier agency, 'the organization must undertake courier service as an organized and fairly continuous activity and not as an isolated or occasional act or transaction. Since, GSRTC is engaged in the activity of passenger transportation by virtue of its establishment under the Road Transport Corporation Act, 1950 and therefore, is not engaged in the business of courier agency. In order to qualify the activity of a courier agency, it must be engaged in transportation of time-sensitive documents, goods or articles. iv. In the present case, GSRTC is not engaged in door to door transportation of time sensitive documents. Rather, it is Ashapura which is collecting documents and parcels and it delivers to the ultimate customer at their address. To deliver the documents on time is the responsibility of Ashapura and not that of GSRTC. Ashapura merely uses the spaces of bus for the purpose o....
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....regarding issuance of consignment note is contained in Rule 4B of Service Tax Rules, 1994. x. As per Explanation to Rule 4B, 'consignment note" means a document, issued by a goods transport agency against the receipt of goods for the purpose of transport of goods by road in a goods carriage, which is serially numbered, and contains the name of the consignor and consignee, registration number of the goods carriage in which the goods are transported, details of the goods transported, details of the place of origin and destination, person liable for paying service tax whether consignor, consignee or the goods transport agency'. xi. The consignment Note shall also contain the details of the consignment note number and date, gross weight of the consignment. [2nd Proviso to Rule 4A of Service Tax Rules, 1994] xii. GSRTC is issuing 'Parcel Receipt' and by no stretch of imagination, it can be considered as consignment notes. Copy of 'Parcel Receipt' is enclosed. xiii. In the following cases pronounced under the erstwhile Law, it has been considered that when the transports did not issue consignment notes or GRs or Challans or any documents containing the....
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...., bulk cargo vessels, container ships and the like 115 996522 Inland water transport services of goods by refrigerator vessels, tankers and other vessels 116 Group 99653 Air and space transport services of goods 117 996531 Air transport services of letters and parcels and other goods 118 996532 Space transport services of freight 10. GSRTC submits the definitions from the erstwhile Service Tax Law: i. As per section 65(105)(zzzo) which taxes services pertaining to transport of passenger embarking in India for domestic journey or international journey reads as 'Any service provided or to be provided to any passenger, by an aircraft operator, in relation to scheduled or non-scheduled air transport of such passenger embarking in India for domestic journey or international journey;' ii. Further, as per section 65(105)(zzn) which taxes transport of goods by aircraft which reads as 'Any service provided or to be provided to any person, by an aircraft operator, in relation to transport of goods by aircraft;' iii. Thus, in the above case, the aircraft remains same and used for twin pur....
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....he front side of the packets should clearly state the name and address of the receiver, the name of the station where goods are dispatched, railway zone and the destination. Sometimes additional instructions like fragile or glass with care is written to attract the attention of the railway people. iii. Dispatch Note: After proper packing, goods are delivered to the booking office. Two notes called forwarding note and consignment are prepared. When goods are carried through a passenger train, a forwarding note is prepared and when goods are carried through a goods train, a consignment note is prepared. iv Booking of goods: The railway booking office book the goods and issues a receipt clearly stating whether goods are carried at owner's risk or railway's risks. The booking work is done after the receipt of goods properly packed and a forwarding or consignment note. v Dispatch of Railway receipt: After booking the goods, the consignor obtains a railway receipt from the railway authorities. This RR is dispatched to the consignee who on presentation take the delivery of goods. The RR can be made self or on the name of the receiver. ....
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....017) which defines job work as, 'job work' means any treatment or process undertaken by a person on goods belonging to another registered person and the expression "job worker" shall be construed accordingly. 19. GSRTC submits that it is merely transporting goods given by Ashapura by providing space in its bus from one location to another location. It is not doing any treatment or process on the goods. The goods are merely transported from one location to another location in the same condition. Not a single process on the goods is being done by GSRTC. 20. GSRTC cites that classification under GST is to be taken as specified in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975; Section and Chapter Notes and the General Explanatory Notes of the First Schedule, for the purposes of interpretation. 21. Questions on which Advance Ruling sought: (a) Whether GST will be applicable on the parcels of Ashapura that are being transported by GSRTC ? (b) Whether GSRTC is eligible to avail exemption in terms of Sr. No 18 of Notification No 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) whereby GSRTC is transporting parcels of Ashapura, but is neither GTA nor courier agency? (c) W....
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....gnor, consignee or the goods transport agency. In the case of CCE & ST Raigad Vs JAC Logistics Pvt Ltd 2018 (5) TMI 1131 - CESTAT Mumbai, it is held that an invoice which contains all essential ingredients as laid down in rule 4B is no substitute for a consignment note. An invoice creates a liability of debt on the part of recipient of service. A consignment note, on the other hand, carries with it a certain legal burden, the issuing of a consignment note is a contractual undertaking made to the entity that handed over the goods to the agency of responsibility for safe delivery at the stipulated destination. A consignment note also creates binding responsibility for each consignment. Issue of monthly invoice does not, ipso facto, creates such liability and hence cannot be substituted for a consignment note. 25. The relevant clause of agreement is reproduced as follows: Clauses of the agreement 7(d) The transportation of parcel, allied services and courier covers accepted by the Licensee to place where there are no offices will be at the sole risk of the Licensee. The licensor shall not be responsible, if such parcels are misplaced or lost or any manner damage t....
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....5 = 137 STC 596 = 2004 AIR SCW 5496 iii Shriram Vinyl v. CC2001 (129) ELT 278 (SC 3 member bench) iv CC v. Rupa and Co Ltd. 2004 AIR SCW 4241 = 170 ELT 129 (SC), v. Mysore Minerals v. CIT 1999 AIR SCW 3146 = AIR 1999 SC 3185 = 239 ITR 775 = 106 Taxman 166 (SC) vi CIT v. Gwalior Rayon Silk Mfg Co. - (1992) 62 Taxman 471 = 196 ITR 149 SC) vii Hercules Tyre and Rubber Industries v. CCE 1983 (13) ELT 1017 (CEGAT) ' Asea Brown Boveri Ltd. v. CCE 2000 (121) ELT 666 (CEGAT)' Baxter (1) P. Ltd. v. CC 2001 (130) ELT 652 (CEGAT). Pitamber Coated Paper v. CCE 2003 (157) ELT 297 (CESTAT). viii Tata Oil Mills Co. Ltd. v. CCE (1989) 4 SCC 541 = 43 ELT 183 = 82 STC 225 = AIR 1990 SC 27 (SC). ix HMM Ltd. v. CCE - 1996 (11) SCC 332 = 87 ELT 593 (SC) x New Holland Tractors v. CCE (2010) 253 ELT 249 (CESTAT) xi Cochin Cements v. State of Kerala (2008) 18 VST 224 (Ker HC DB) xii UOI v. Ranbaxy Laboratories (2008) 7 SCC 502 = AIR 2008 SC 2286 - quoted with approval in N Kannadasan v. Ajoy Khose (2009) 7 SCC 1. 28. GSRTC vide letter dated 5-3-22 submitted that the activity carried out by it will not be classified....
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....that the support service for road transportation stated above assists in road transportation and is different from the activity of transportation of goods by road. Thus, the activity of transportation of parcels of Ashapura will not be considered as support service on road transport. Revenue's submission 31. Revenue has neither submitted its comments nor appeared for hearing. Findings 32. At the outset we would like to make it clear that the provisions of CGST Act, 2017 and GGST Act, 2017 are in pari materia and have the same provisions in like matter and differ from each other only on a few specific provisions. Therefore, unless a mention is particularly made to such dissimilar provisions, a reference to the CGST Act would also mean reference to the corresponding similar provisions in the GGST Act. 33. We have carefully considered the submissions made by GSRTC. 34. On reading of the Agreement entered by GSRTC with Ashapura, we find that said agreement expired on 30-6-20. Shri Thakkar during the personal hearing, submitted that GSRTC intends to do such activities, as detailed in agreement submitted before us, in future. GSRTC vide its letter dated 18-2-22 submitte....
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....GSRTC for enabling it ( Ashapura) for door to door delivery of parcels. Further, the specific activity of GSRTC supplying parcel office space/cabin/shed to Ashapura falls under the category of infrastructural support services which is a subset of Business Support Services. We hold GSRTC supplies Business Support Services to its service recipient. The standard agreement submitted before us asserts our findings. 37. As already discussed, in the previous para, we find that GSRTC is not a Courier Agency as it is not involved in door to door transportation of goods/articles/documents. 38. We note that GSRTC transports goods, as detailed in agreement before us, by road in its buses. We note from Notification 11/2017- CT (R), a goods transport agency means any person who provides service in relation to transport of goods by road and issues consignment note, by whatever name called. In present case, GSRTC is providing service in relation to transport of goods by road and GSRTC issues parcel receipt. Though not specifically mentioned in these parcel receipts, we infer that both the consignee and consignor will be Ashapura. We note that Parcel receipts do not have the details of the go....