TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (8) TMI 472
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....s were required to discharge Service Tax as the service is rendered in the country. (ii) The appellants book space in the air/ sea crafts and sell the same to their prospective customers; the appellants receive certain commission from the air/ sea liners in respect of this activity; the appellants performed the activity falling under "Business Auxiliary Service". (iii) The appellant recovers certain charges, from the Indian exporters, concerning the expenditure, on Custom duty, delivery order charges, port handling etc., at the destination in foreign ports. 2. A show-cause notice dated 24.10.2019 was issued to the appellant seeking to recover Service Tax of Rs.2,80,26,749/- along with interest while seeking to impose penalties under Sections 76, 77 & 78 of the Finance Act, 1994; the said show-cause notice has been confirmed by the Commissioner (Audit), CGST vide OIO No.03/GST(Audit)GGM/ Commr./SC/2021 dated 20.12.2021. Hence, the present appeal. 3. Shri Mahesh Raichandani, learned Counsel appearing for the appellants submits that the appellant reserves space in carrier vessels or aircrafts for export of cargo; the appellant does not have contract with the carriers but reserve....
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....acking/ un-packing, transshipment, temporary warehousing; as the services provided to a foreign customer and remuneration is received in convertible foreign exchange, the service merits to be treated as export by virtue of Rule 10 of POPS Rules, 2012 read with Rule 6A of Service Tax, Rules, 1994. He further submits that Rule 4 of POPS Rules, 2012 covers situations where the work is performed on the goods, as in the case of repair of a machineand not with respect to the goods. The services undertaken by the appellant are bundled services where the essential character is given by the main service i.e. GTA rendered to the foreign customers in the instant case. It is not open for the Department to artificially divide the activity into various services and charge tax separately as held in: Larsen &Tubro Ltd.- 2006 (3) STR 223. Ircon International Ltd.- 2006 (1) STR 46. CC Vs Shapoorji Pollanji& Co.- 2006 (1) STR 164. CC Vs Larson &Tubro Ltd.- 2006 (4) STR 63. Diebold Systems Pvt. Ltd.- 2008 (9) STR 546. 6. Learned Counsel submits that the appellants have incurred expenditure such as Customs Duty, delivery order charges, port handling charges etc. of the shipment at the r....
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.... the sale of space of airlines/ vessels who have achieved the status of a recipient of a service and have paid remuneration to the appellants. He submits that the reliance on Gray Worldwide (I) Pvt. Limited and Mahanagar Gas Limited, Sai Service Station Limited- 2013-TIOL-1436- CESTAT-MUMBAI, M/s Rohan Motors- 2020-110L-1676-CBSTAT-DBL, Kafta Hospitality and Travels Pvt. Limited- 2021 (47) GSTL 140 (Tri. LB), to support the argument that incentives received to achieve a target are not a discount, is misplaced as the facts are different. 9. Adverting to the contentions of the appellant on the destination charges, learned AR submits that the same are incurred post-arrival at the foreign port of destination for services performed therein; the appellant's contention, that Rule 4 of POPS Rules, 2012 is applicable,is incorrect inasmuch as the appellants dealt with the goods which were handed over by the Indian customer. He submits that on the other hand, the appellants contend that Rule 4 of POPS Rules, 2012 is not applicable in respect of other services; there is an inherent contradiction in the submissions of the appellant; moreover, the appellants admitted that they have received the....
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....side India; in terms of the Agreement, the entire activity starting from the premises of the sellers in India to delivery of the goods at the destination outside India is a single item of work; the same is regarded commercially as a single transaction; since it is export of service, it is exempt in terms of Rule 10 of POPS Rules; Circular No.104/7/2008-ST dated 06.08.2008 clarified that GTA Service provided, though includes various intermediary and ancillary services such as loading/ un-loading, packing/ un-packing, transshipment, temporary warehousing, is a single composite service; Rule 10 of POPS Rules prevails over Rule 4 being more specific; in terms of Section 66F, the services though being bundled, essential character is of transportation. 11.1. Learned Counsel submits that the same issue has been raised by the Department in respect of their Pune Branch and the learned Commissioner, Pune confirmed the demand, as in the instant case, holding that Rule 10 of POPS Rules is not applicable and Rule 4 is applicable. On an appeal filed by the appellant, CESTAT Mumbai, in their case at Pune held-2022 (64) GSTL 97 (Tri. Mumbai) as follows: "15. The question that arises, even assum....
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.... haspicked up some activities, from the bundle of services rendered by the appellants, in a convenient manner. One has to see the nature of the service in total. Segmenting the series of actions involved in the provision of a particular service, would result in ridiculous propositions. The Department has not viewed the service rendered by the appellants in a holistic manner, ignoring the very fact that the services rendered by the appellants are not complete just by loading of the goods on a vessel or on an aircraft. They go beyond. If the case of the Department is accepted, the provisions of Section 66F of the Finance Act, 1994 would become redundant. Such an approach is not permissible under the law. 12. The second issue on which demand is raised pertains to the incentive or commission received by the appellants from the ship liners/ airlines. The Department argues that the commission received by the appellants from the ship liners/ airlines for booking of space for transportation of cargo is towards the "Business Auxiliary Service" rendered to the ship liners/ airlines. We find that other than alleging that the appellants have rendered "Business Auxiliary Service" to the ship l....
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....air travel agent is promoting the service of airlines/CRS Companies. The air travel agent is, by sale of airlines ticket, ensuring the promotion of its own business even though this may lead to incidental promotion of the business of the airlines/CRS Companies. Thus, in terms of the provision of Section 65A(2)(a) of the Finance Act, the classification of the service would fall under "air travel agent" services and not BAS. Whether incentives paid for achieving targets are taxable? 72. he contention advanced by Learned Counsel of the interveners is that incentives cannot be construed as "consideration" and if it is so, no service tax can be levied on this amount because under Section 67 of the Finance Act, service tax is leviable on "consideration", which is the gross amount charged by the service provider for rendering a particular taxable service. 73. It would, therefore, be appropriate to examine the scope of the term "incentives". Incentives are generally given to encourage performance of a party. The factual position described above, reveals that incentives have been paid by the airlines or CRS Companies to travel agents when they achieve a pre-determined target of sal....
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....lated for providing "such taxable service." This, according to the Supreme Court, is the plain meaning attached to Section 67, either prior to its amendment on 1 May, 2006 or after this amendment. 77. Consideration, which is taxable under Section 67 of the Finance Act, should be transaction specific. Incentives, on the other hand, are based on general performance of the service provider and are not to be related to any particular transaction of service. It needs to be noted that commission, on the other hand, is dependent on each booking and not on the target. If the air travel agent does not achieve the predetermined target, incentives will not be paid to the travel agents. 78. In this connection it will be appropriate to take note of the decision of the Federal Court of Australia AP Group. The Federal Court of Australia held that in order to levy tax, the payment must be attributable to a particular supply and not to supplies in general and so the target incentives paid by a motor vehicle manufacturer to a dealer would not qualify as consideration as the incentives would be in relation to all supplies and not in relation to a particular supply. The relevant portion of th....
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....ving supplies for consideration equally unpersuasive. A dealer will always wish to sell as many cars as practicable and to move old stock to make way for new stock. So too a dealer will always wish its ordering arrangements to be the most efficient and economically beneficial to it. The manufacture will have the same objectives. It is this context which underpins the Tribunal's conclusion that the payments are not for the supply of anything by the dealer. As the Tribunal said at [86] the dealer (which must be inferred to act in an economically rational manner in the ordinary course) will always want to run the business in this way. The fact that the dealer receives a payment as an incentive when certain thresholds associated with running the business in this way does not mean that the dealer is supplying a service to the manufacturer for consideration. If the incentive payment were not available there is no basis to infer that the dealer would not behave in the same way for free. For these reasons there cannot be said to be any supply for consideration in these arrangements." (emphasis supplied) 79.Reference can also be made to the decision of this Tribunal in Rohan Motors Li....
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....s is towards the expenditure such as customs duty, delivery order charges, port handling at the foreign ports; as the charges pertain to the activity rendered at a foreign destination, the same cannot be charged in India. Moreover, these are in the nature of reimbursement of expenses. Moreover, we see that under this Head too, Revenue does not specify as to which was the category under "Business Auxiliary Service", the services rendered by the appellants fall. We do not find any type of service rendered by the appellants in regards to promotion of the business of their Indian clients. Their activity and the payments received thereof squarely fall under the main activity of goods transport operator or cargo handler. By no stretch of imagination, it can be argued that the appellants have rendered "Business Auxiliary Service" to their customers. 13.1. We find that the Hon'ble Apex Court, in the case of Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats Private Limited(supra)held that: 24. In this hue, the expression 'such' occurring in Section 67 of the Act assumes importance. In other words, valuation of taxable services for charging service tax, the authorities are to find what is the ....
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..... However, conceptually it is a great deal more than an ordinary prose. There is a special peculiarity in the mode of verbal communication by a legislation. A legislation is not just a series of statements, such as one finds in a work of fiction/nonfiction or even in a judgment of a court of law. There is a technique required to draft a legislation as well as to understand a legislation. Former technique is known as legislative drafting and latter one is to be found in the various principles of "interpretation of statutes". Vis-avis ordinary prose, a legislation differs in its provenance, layout and features as also in the implication as to its meaning that arise by presumptions as to the intent of the maker thereof. 28. Of the various rules guiding how a legislation has to beinterpreted, one established rule is that unless a contrary intention appears, a legislation is presumed not to be intended to have a retrospective operation. The idea behind the rule is that a current law should govern current activities. Law passed today cannot apply to the events of the past. If we do something today, we do it keeping in view the law of today and in force and not tomorrow's backward adju....