TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (4) TMI 958
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....ullela Nageswara Rao, Member ( Technical ) Mr. Joseph Kodianthara, Sr. Advocate for the Appellant Mr. Neeraj Kumar ( AR ) for the Respondent ORDER Per : P. A. Augustian The issue in the present appeals is whether the activities carried out by the Appellants can be considered as falling under the service category of 'Dredging' for confirming service tax. 2. The Appellants are registered societies and entered into an agreement with Azhikkal Port, Kerala for conducting dredging of sand from Valapattanam river manually and are permitted to sell the sand. As per the terms of the agreement, Appellants agreed to pay Royalty, Vehicle pass, Road tax, Overtime allowance, Canoe registration, Jetty registration, Society registration, Geol....
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....on sale and not on service. As per the law laid down by the Apex Court in M/s Doypack Systems (1998 (2) SCC 299 and M/s All India Federation 2007 (7) STR 625, the demand is unsustainable. The Ld. Counsel further submits that the demand is also barred by limitation. As per the law laid down by the Apex Court, in the matter of M/s Uniworth Textiles Ltd. Vs. CCE, Raipur reported in 2013 (288) ELT 161 (SC), when taxability itself is in dispute, question of deliberate suppression including non-declaration cannot arise. Fact being so, the demand invoking the extended period of limitation is also unsustainable. 5. As regards penalty, the Ld. Counsel relied on the decision of this Tribunal in the matter of CST, Bangalore & others Vs. Motor World &....
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....ansport the sand obtained from dredging and selling it at a predetermined price. From that it appears that the permission where right for removing the sand from dredging and selling it to the ultimate customer is given to the service provider in lieu of the money for providing 'dredging' service. The Ld. AR further submits that as per Section 67(ii) of the Finance Act, 1994 where the service tax is chargeable on any taxable service with reference to its value and such value in a case where the provision of service is for a consideration not wholly or partly consisting of money be such amount in money with the addition of service tax charged equivalent to the consideration. Since the consideration for providing dredging service is th....
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....t is an admitted fact that for carrying out the dredging activities, the appellants were paid an amount of Rs. 8,36,58,054/- for the work. However, the issue raised by the appellant was that Mithi River is not a river but a nala and therefore services rendered by them does not amount to dredging of a river and accordingly, they are not liable to pay service tax. As regarding the decision relied on by the learned AR in the matter of Mackintosh Burn Ltd., in the said matter also there was a contract from Irrigation Department of the West Bengal Government for dredging of river Ichhamati from BSF Bridge at Kalanchi and the contract was for a consideration of Rs. 25.44 Crores. 9. As per the judgment of Hon'ble Apex Court in the matter of G....