TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (3) TMI 129
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.... by this common order. 2. The facts of the case in brief are that M/s M.J. Solanki (Partnership Firm) is engaged in providing taxable services such as Cleaning Services and Manpower Recruitment or Supply Agency Services etc. Information received by the DGGI indicated that respondent have provided the taxable services but had not paid the appropriate amount of Service tax on taxable services provided by them. Acting on the intelligence, an inquiry was initiated against the respondent. Accordingly, a search was carried out at their registered office and documents/ records relevant to the inquiry available at the said premises were withdrawn under Panchnama. Statement of Shri Anil J Solanki, partner was recorded. Investigation of such documents withdrawn and subsequently details provided by the assessee viz, agreement/contracts/works orders/ invoices/ ledger and statement of Shri Anil Solanki, partner revealed that the Respondent are engaged in providing the services of Manpower Supply, cleaning and Housekeeping, Security, Rent-a-cab etc, to their various clients which includes hospitals, medical colleges, educational institutes, local authorities viz. Collector office, municipal cor....
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....rview of "Government", "Local Authority" , or " Government Authority". 4.1 He also submits that adjudicating authority has examined the aspect of the nature of the services provided by the assessee to the service recipients, but has wrongly concluded that by way of supply of manpower services, the assessee are providing health services under the supervision of authorized medical officers of government -run municipal hospitals and government health centers and hence eligible for exemption under Sr. No. 25(a) of Notification No. 25/2012-ST upto 11.07.2014; that the supply of manpower services provided by the assessee to the government run public health institutions is nothing but Public health to the Government which is exempted in terms of Notification No. 25/2012-ST as amended vide Notification No. 6/2014-ST dated 11.07.2014. The nature of activity of assessee i.e. Supply of manpower to various institutions, as per the agreement made between the service recipients, is squarely falls under the category of "Manpower Recruitment of Supply Agency". Adjudicating authority has erred in holding that the assessee is providing health services. 4.2 He also submits that exemption from payme....
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..... It is beyond doubt that, as per the definition given for "Auxiliary Education Services, in the said notification, supply of manpower in the form of class 3 & 4 staff/driver to the said educational institution cannot be treated as "auxiliary educational services. From 11.07.2014, to get exemption under the said Notification, they must have provided the services as mentioned at Sr. No. 9(b) of Notification supra. The assessee never undertakes responsibility of providing any of the said specified services to the said institution. No justification is given in the order-in-original that services of supply of paramedical staff come under the purview of auxiliary education services, as defined in the said Notification, till 11.07.2014 and thereafter, the same come under any of the services mentioned under Sr. No. 9(b) of said Notification. In these circumstances, the conclusion of the adjudicating authority that the assessee is eligible for exemption from Service Tax on the manpower supply service provided to the said educational institution is not correct and not sustainable. 4.4 He further submits that adjudicating authority has allowed the exemption from service tax claimed by the a....
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....ion conservancy". Adjudicating authority has ignored all these facts and wrongly held that as per Sr. No. 25(a) of the Notification No. 25/2012-ST dated 20.06.2012, as amended, service tax demand for the assessee for providing Cleaning and Housekeeping services to Government undertakings, Government Hospitals, educational institutions, Community Health Centres is liable to be dropped. 4.5 He argued that without appreciating complete facts and without verifying facts/details as required under Notification No. 25/2012-ST (Sr. No. 25(a)), as amended, adjudicating authority has made a wrong conclusion. 4.6 He also submits that the adjudicating authority has also extended the benefit of exemption from Service tax for waste management provided to Rajkot Municipal Corporation without any discussion. It is not specified in the impugned order about the entry in Notification No. 25/2012-ST which provides exemption to such service and conditions of the Notification. 4.7 He also argued that demand of Service tax of Rs. 50,02,195/- is dropped by merely relying the upon a CA certificate, which is not proper. 4.8 He also submits that the assessee had failed to declare the collection of amount....
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....ification no. 25/2012-ST dated 29.06.2012 i.e. the service must be provided to Government, a local authority or a governmental authority and the service must be any activity in relation to public health. 5.3 He further submits that the requirement of Sl. No. 25(a) of Notification No. 25/2012-ST dated 20.06.2012, as amended, is provision of Service to Government, etc. and not by Government, etc., the requirement of contract between the Respondent and patients, invoicing by the Respondent to patients, etc. that is propounded by department in appeals filed by department is beyond the scope of aforesaid Notifications. 5.4 He also submits that it is canvassed in appeals that output service is provided by government by using input service provided by respondent. Hence, exemption meant for main service cannot be per se extended to the input service. However, the appeals ignore the fact that what is exempted is the service provided to Government, etc., and not by Government. In this case, the services provided by the Respondent, by itself, is an output service. Consequently, Section 66F(1) of Finance Act, 1994 is not applicable. 5.5 He also argued that inasmuch as there is no challenge ....
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....ial facts available on record. The same is therefore infructuous and hence, it is liable to be rejected summarily. 5.10 He also submits that the appeal does not rely upon any specific data or evidence to rebut the CA certificate dated 09.07.2019 based on which Ld. Adjudicating Authority has given detail findings in impugned order to drop the demand of Service tax amounting to Rs. 50,02,195/- 5.11 He further submits that the issue involved in this case is about interpretation of statute in general and Notification No. 25/2012-ST dated 20.05.2012, as amended, in particular. The respondent had a bona fide that they are eligible for the exemption owing to the fact that service provided by them were in relation to public health and sanitation conservancy. The belief of Respondent has been duly upheld by the Ld. Adjudicating authority. Extended period of limitation is also not invocable where the issue involves interpretation, there is a bona fide belief of assessee regarding exemption to the services provided by him and all the transactions are duly recorded in the books of accounts. He placed reliance on following judgments. (i) Sujana Metal Products Ltd. -2011(273) ELT 112(Tri. Ba....
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.... hospitals, health centres etc. run by government. The paramedic personnel and other staff provided by them to the said hospitals have worked under the Medical Superintendent, Medical Officers etc. of Government Hospitals, Medical CollegeS, Primary Health Centres, Community Health Centres etc., who in turn are run by government for providing public health services. 6.3 We find that to come to a conclusion, the entry at Sl. No. 25(a) in Notification No. 25/2012-S.T. needs to be reproduced and the same are reproduced below for ready reference. 25. Services provided to Government, a local authority or a governmental authority by way of - (a) carrying out any activity in relation to any function ordinarily entrusted to a municipality in relation to water supply, public health, sanitation conservancy, solid waste management or slum improvement and upgradation; or Further Notification No. 6/2014-ST dated 11.07.2014 substituted entry No. 25 of above mentioned Notification as under : (viii) in entry 25, for item (a), the following item shall be substituted, namely :- "(a) water supply, public health, sanitation conservancy, solid waste management or slum improvement and up-gra....
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....nt of service tax in terms of above mentioned Notification. We also noticed that the concept of categorization of services under Section 65 of the Finance Act, 1994 has been redundant after 01.07.2012. For the exemption of service tax under the disputed entry only two requirements has to be satisfied. First the service must be provided to Government, Local Authority or a Governmental authority and second is the services must be any activity in relation to public health. In the present disputed matter respondent fulfill both the requirements. Therefore, we do not find any reason for interfering in the conclusion reached by the Ld. Commissioner in the impugned order before us. In our view, impugned order is correct, legal and does not suffer from any infirmity. 6.5 Further we find that the revenue for denying the claim of above exemption also take the ground that the para -medics and other staff provided by the respondent do not have any direct contract with the patients and do not raise any invoices on the patients and also do not have any legal responsibility to provide public health services on his own account. In this context we find that a plain reading of the above provisions ....
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....ring, including any mid-day meals scheme sponsored by the Government; (iii) security or cleaning or house-keeping services performed in such educational institution; (iv) services relating to admission to, or conduct of examination by, such institution;"; 6.7 We find that the Serial No. 9 of the Mega Exemption Notification No. 25/2012-S.T., dated 20-6-2012 exempted from service tax services by way of "(a) auxiliary education services to an educational institution". Further, vide Notification No. 06/2014, dated 11-7-2014, Entry 9 came to be substituted as above. We also find that C.B.E. & C. vide their Circular No. 172/7/2013-S.T., dated 19-9-2013, which has been issued for clarification regarding levy of service tax on certain services relating to the education sector clarify as under : "2. The matter is covered by two provisions of the Finance Act, 1994. Section 66D of the Finance Act contains a negative list of services and clause (I) thereof reads as under : " services by way of - (i) pre-school education and education upto higher secondary school or equivalent ; (ii) education as a part of a curriculum for obtaining a qualification recognized by any law for the ti....
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....ndent supply the manpower to educational institutions by way of drivers/ administrative staff/ class 3& 4 staff that are essential for the educational institutions for performing their works. Therefore in our view respondent is eligible for exemption from payment of Service Tax for supply of manpower to above mentioned educational institutions under Sr. No. 9 of Notification No. 25/2012-ST dated 20.06.2012 6.8 As regard the cleaning and housekeeping services provided by the respondent to Government offices, Courts, government undertakings we find that in this regard Ld. Adjudicating rightly conclude that these services are exempted under Sl. No. 25 of Notification No. 25/2012-ST dated 12.06.2012 as amended by Notification No. 6/2014-ST dated 11.07.2014. We find that as per Sr. No. 25(a) of Notification No. 25/2012-ST dated 20.06.2012 as amended vide Notification No. 6/2014-ST dated 11.07.2014, service provided to Government, Local Authority or a Government authority by way of carrying out any activity in relation to public health, sanitation conservancy, solid waste management etc. are exempted from service tax. We find that in the present matter revenue demanded the service tax f....