TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (7) TMI 1713
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.... persons for providing bus services to the factory employees and school going children on various routes on the terms and conditions mentioned in those agreements. Three such agreements entered by them after 01.07.2012 with (1) M/s Shree Sarveshwari Tour & Travels, (2) M/s Sahni Travels, Haldwani (3) M/s Bansal Travels, Rudrapur 3. In view of the terms and conditions of the said agreements, it was observed: * The appellant in addition to paying per day charges, agreed to pay the amounts towards diesel & mobil oil consumed on actual basis (subject to certain restrictions detailed in the said agreement). * It also agreed to pay Permit Fee, Sales Tax, Road Tax (77.41% of the total Road tax) on submission of receipts. * The appellant also agreed the pay the Service Tax (as applicable) directly to the department either as reimbursement or as reverse charge. The department formed the opinion that the appellant was receiving the service of renting of a motor vehicle designed to carry passenger. The Notification No. 30/2012-ST dated 20.06.2012 (as amended from time to time) has been issued by the Central Government which has become effective w.e.f. 01.07.2012. Vide said notificatio....
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....chanism under notification no. 13/2012 dated 20.06.2012 has wrongly been invoked. The buses hired by the appellants fall under the definition of contract carriage which were not used / hired by the appellants for the purposes of tourism but for the transportation of passenger (factory employees and school going children on various routes). The appellant otherwise was reimbursing the bill amount towards diesel and mobil oil charges to the service provider. It is also brought to notice by the Ld. Counsel for the appellants that department had also filed an appeal against the impunged order challenging the setting aside demand for the extended period. However, the appeal was withdrawn due to the monetary limit policy. With these submissions, the demand confirmed even for the normal period vide the impugned order (OI- A dated 12.02.2019) is prayed to be set aside. Appeal is accordingly, prayed to be allowed. 7. While rebutting the submissions Ld. DR, foremost, has reiterated the OIO dated 16.05.2017 and O-I-A dated 12.2.02019. It is also submitted the rented / hired buses (contract carriage) were excluded from the purview of the clause 23(b) of mega exemption notification no. 25/2012-....
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....tion. Perusal makes it clear that the notification applies if the service mentioned therein taxable. The defence of the appellant in present case is that the service received by the appellant is not taxable in terms of mega exemptions notification no. 25/2012 dated 20.06.2012 entry no. 23(b) thereof. 8.3 We have perused the said entry it reads as follows: (A) Clause 23 of notification no 25 / 2012 dt 20.06.2012 as applicable during the period 01.07.2012 to 10.07.2014 exempted following services: - 23(b) Transport of passengers, with or without accompanied belongings, by - (a) Air, embarking from or terminating in an airport located in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim or Tripura or at Bagdogra located in West Bengal. (b) A contract carriage for the transportation of passengers, excluding tourism, conducted tour, charter or hire; orr (c) Ropeway, cable car or aerial tramway; 8.4 We have also looked into the definition of contract carriage as given under section 2 (7) in The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988: (7) "contract carriage" means a motor vehicle which carries a passenger or passengers for hire or reward and is engaged u....
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....eriod from 28.03.2014 till 10.07.2014 the activity was exempted through Clause 23(b) of Mega Exemption Notification No. 25/2012 dated 20.06.2012. From the record we further note that said Notification was amended through Notification No. 6/2014 dated 11.07.2014 wherein the said entry at Clause 23(b) has been amended and the said exemption was restricted only to non-air-conditioned vehicles. 8.7 We also observe that earlier also there had been previous notification as well as post one exempting the impunged activity from the payment of service tax as below: - As regards the period April, 2000 to 23-12-2002. I find that notification No. 20/2009-S.T., dated 07.07.2009 was issued by the Government of India providing as under: - "In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 93 of the Finance Act, 1994 (32 of 1994) hereinafter referred to as the Finance Act), the Central Government on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby exempts the taxable service referred to in sub-clause (n) of clause (105) of section 65 of the Finance Act, provided or to be provided to any person, by a tour operator having a contract carriage or touris....