TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (8) TMI 1615
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....hority rejected part of the refund claims filed. As all these appeals involve an identical issue of eligibility of rebate, these are being taken up together for disposal by issuance of this common order. 2. The following table gives the details of rebate claims filed, the orders of the Original Authority, the impugned orders and the amount involved, period of dispute, etc.:- S. No. Appeal No. Impugned Order Order-in-Original Period of dispute Rebate claimed (in Rs.) Rebate sanctioned (in Rs.) Amount Rejected (in Rs.) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) 1 ST/41596/2016 O-I-A No. 15 dated 30.05.2016 O-I-O No. LTUC/145/2014 DC (ST-Rebate) dated 02.06.2014 October 2013 Rs. 20,21,575/- Rs. 20,12,097/- Rs. 9,478/- 2 ST/41597/2016 O-I-A No. 16 dated 30.05.2016 O-I-O No. LTUC/146/2014 DC (ST-Rebate) dated 02.06.2014 November 2013 Rs. 17,72,019/- Rs. 17,60,994/- Rs. 10,974/- 3 ST/41598/2016 O-I-A No. 17 dated 30.05.2016 O-I-O No. LTUC/151/2014 DC (ST-Rebate) dated 04.06.2014 December 2013 Rs. 37,33,831/- Rs. 37,30,541/- Rs. 3,290/- 4 ST/42325/2016 O-I-A No. 102 dat....
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....rvices exported to any country other than Nepal and Bhutan In exercise of the powers conferred by rule 6A of the Service Tax Rules, 1994 (hereinafter referred to as the said rules), the Central Government hereby directs that there shall be granted rebate of the whole of the duty paid on excisable inputs or the whole of the service tax and cess paid on all input services (herein after referred to as 'input services'), used in providing service exported in terms of rule 6A of the said rules, to any country other than Nepal and Bhutan, subject to the conditions, limitations and procedures specified hereinafter,- 2. Conditions and limitations:- (a) that the service has been exported in terms of rule 6A of the said rules; (b) that the duty on the inputs, rebate of which has been claimed, has been paid to the supplier; (c) that the service tax and cess, rebate of which has been claimed, have been paid on the input services to the provider of service; Provided if the person is himself is liable to pay for any input services; he should have paid the service tax and cess to the Central Government. (d) the total amount of rebate ....
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.... (Appeals) being aggrieved against sanctioning of rebate claims on the grounds that the amount claimed as rebate was in excess when compared to the declaration filed in terms of Notification No. 39/2012-ST dated 20.06.2012, rebate amounts sanctioned included the invoices of certain services which were not included in the declaration filed, in some cases, though the nature of service was declared, the service tax amount claimed as rebate was much higher than the amount declared and that there is no finding as to whether the rebate sanctioning authority has verified the declaration filed as to its correctness in terms of paragraph 3.2 of the Notification No. 39/2012-ST dated 20.06.2012. 3.4 The Lower Appellate Authority vide his Order-in-Appeal Nos. 15,16&17/2016 dated 30.05.2016, allowed the Department's Appeals holding that there exists a clear statutory pre-requisite of verification which effectuates the object and purpose of the statute before sanctioning of rebate, that these procedures are not simple formalities but are vital in rebate sanctioning and the appellant had not adduced concrete reasons or any coherent evidence for giving wrong details at the time of filing of dec....
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....ties, non-observance of the same would obviously disentitle the appellant from sanction of rebate, he has upheld the rejection of rebate sustained. In support of his contention, the Ld. Adjudicating Authority has relied on the decisions in the cases as mentioned below:- i. Commissioner of Central Excise, New Delhi Vs. Hari Chand Shri Gopal [2010 (260) EKT 3 (SC)] ii. Indian Aluminium Company Ltd. Vs. Thane Municipal Corporation [1991 (55) ELT 454 (SC)] iii. India Sugars & Refineries Ltd. Vs. Union of India and Others [1983 ELT 209 (Kar.)] iv. Commissioner of Central Excise, New Delhi Vs. Avis Electronics Pvt. Ltd. [2000 (117) ELT 571 (Tri.-LB)] v. TISCO Limited Vs. Commissioner of Central Excise, Madras [2000 (118) ELT 104 (Tri. LB)] 3.6 In the above case laws, it has been held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court that non-observance of even a procedural condition not to be condoned if likely to facilitate commission of fraud and introduce administrative inconveniences. In respect of interpretation of a Notification, it has been held that if an expression in Notification is used in plain and meaningful language there is no scope for assuming ....
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....e claim is sanctionable strictly in terms of provisions of the Notification No. 39/2012-ST dated 20.06.2012 which was issued under Rule 6A of Service Tax Rules, 1994. It is mandatory on the part of the rebate sanctioning authority to verify the correctness of the declaration filed prior to export of service by calling for relevant documents and only after such verification where he is satisfied that there is no likelihood of evasion of duty, he may accept the declaration. Whereas, in these cases, that kind of verification has not been conducted and also there were no discrepancies pointed out relating to computation of the rebate claim as certain input invoices were considered where the service was not declared and also where the services were declared, the amounts of input tax credit claimed substantially differed with the declaration. The requirement of filing the declaration and verification as envisaged in the Notification is a substantive condition and cannot be treated as a mere procedural requirement that can be done away with as these are meant to prevent the misuse of the facility. Non-observance of the procedure prescribed in the Notification would obviously disentitle th....
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....ed to be used in providing service to be exported and the rebate claims were accompanied by invoices of input services issued under Service Tax Rules, 1994. Documentary evidence of receipt of payment against service exported along with input invoices evidencing payment of service tax have been submitted. The Lower Appellate Authority has found the appellant not being eligible for the rebate holding a view that the rebate sanctioning authority has to verify the correctness of the declaration filed prior to export of service and by foregoing such verification by the Original Authority before processing the rebate claim is held to be not in accordance with the law. He has held that the requirement of filing declaration and verification as envisaged in Notification is a substantive condition and cannot be treated as a mere procedural requirement and non-observance of this requirements would disentitle the appellant from sanction of the rebate. 10. The procedure prescribed as extracted below, of the Notification No. 39/2012-ST dated 20.06.2012 and its compliance by the appellant is the core of a dispute in these appeals. "3. Procedure. 3.1 Filing of Declaration.- Th....
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....care services, back-office services etc. which are considered to be "business auxiliary services" under the Finance Act, 1994 for the purpose of levy of service tax. The nature of the services is such that they are rendered on a continuous basis without any commencement or terminal points; it is a seamless service. It involves attending to cross-border telephone calls relating to a variety of queries from existing or prospective customers in respect of the products or services of multinational corporations. The appellant's unit in Okhla is one of those places which are popularly known as "Call-Centres" - business process outsourcing (BPO) centres. The wealth of skilled, English-speaking, computer-savvy youth in our country are a great source of manpower required by the multinational corporations for such services. The BPO centres become very active from evening because of the time-difference between India and the European and American continents. The mainstay of the call centres is a sophisticated computer system and a technically strong and sophisticated international telephone network. The service consists of providing information relating to the products and services of the MNCs....
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....tc., depending upon the arrangement which it has with those service-providers. Now we have to appreciate that in a call centre where there are hundreds of employees attending to calls from abroad at any given point of time, it is next to impossible to anticipate the date of export and with precision demarcate the point of time prior to the export and also determine the point of time when the export may be said to have been completed. What can be the determining factor? Is each call to be considered as an independent export of taxable services? Is the total number of calls attended to on any particular day to be considered as the export of taxable services? Or is the appellant to reckon the calls on a monthly basis? It needs also to be remembered that there is no way of anticipating any call or the number of calls the call centre would be required to attend on a single day, so that the appellant can comply with the requirement of filing a declaration "prior" to the date of export of taxable service. The very bedrock of the business is the attending of calls and given that they are received on a continuous basis, we find it difficult to conceive of any possibility as to how the appel....