2024 (4) TMI 72

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.... order dated 10.2.2018 impugned order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) by which he upheld three orders in original passed by the original authority covering different periods and rejected the appeals filed by the appellant. 2. Since the issue involved in all these appeals is the same, these are being disposed of together. 3. The appellant was not registered with the Service Tax department. During the audit of one M/s. Tirath Ram Ahuja Pvt. Ltd. Ahuja, it was found that the appellant had rendered services to M/s Ahuja but that it had neither registered itself with the service tax department nor it paid any service tax. 4. The matter was investigated and the appellant was asked to provide data and documents in connection with the....

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.... had executed work as sub-contractor of Ahuja and the main contractor had paid service tax on the total work. (iii) Had the appellant paid service tax, the main contractor would have got credit of the same. Thus, it is a Revenue neutral situation. (iv) The work contracts under which it had rendered services were composite works contracts and it included use of materials on which the appellant had paid VAT. (v) The appellant was entitled to abatement as per the Rules. (vi) The SCN was based on assumptions and presumptions. 7. The Commissioner (Appeals) considered these submissions and found that the appellant had neither taken registration nor paid any service tax nor filed any ST 3 Returns. The fact th....

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....ant, being illiterate, was not satisfactory, yet the officers cannot be harsh and ignore evidence on record to determine the incorrect category of service and raise illegal and excessive demands. (iii) The officers of the department are supposed to know the judgment of the Supreme Court in Commissioner of Central Excise & Customs, Kerala versus Larsen & Toubro Ltd. 2015 (39) S.T.R. 913 (SC). The ignorance of the appellant will not debar the authorities to determine correct category of services to apply the provisions of RCM. (iv) The tax paid by the main contractors was verified by the audit team and the department could also check the tax paid by other contractors from their returns and thus calculate if any service tax w....

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....act. There is nothing in the appeal before us to support this assertion. This submission, therefore cannot be accepted. 13. The second submission is that the appellant was illiterate but it was still the responsibility of the officers to determine the correct tax liability. The assertion that the appellant is illiterate is not borne out from the appeal itself because he signed (in Hindi) not only on the appeal but also on other documents enclosed with the appeal. It is true that the officers must determine the correct tax liability based on the documentary evidence, but the assertion of the appellant that it had carried out composite works contracts and had paid VAT on the value of the goods [although this assertion about payment of VAT ....