2025 (8) TMI 937

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....e charging their customers for booking the cargo collects charges over and above of what they have actually paid to the shipping lines/ airlines. According to the Revenue, the extra amount collected from their customers over and above the amount which the appellant had paid to the shipping lines can be termed as provisions of taxable service classifiable under 'Business Auxiliary Service' and its liable to service tax. Show cause notice dated 18.07.2016 was issued for the period 20.11.2012 to 2014-15 demanding a sum of Rs.2,12,38,744/- towards service tax along with interest and penalty. On adjudication, the demand has been confirmed by the order-in-original no.16-17/Commr/Del East/PV/2021 dated 16.03.2021. Hence the present appeal has been....

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....s.CST, Mumbai- 2016(43) STR 215 (Tri.-Mumba) The observations made by the Tribunal in the case of Greenwich Meridian Logistic (I) Pvt. Ltd. Vs. CST, Mumbai is reproduced below:- "12. The appellant takes responsibility for safety of goods and issues a document of title which is a multi-modal bill of lading and commits to delivery at the consignee's end. To ensure such safe delivery, appellant contracts with carriers, by land, sea or air, without diluting its contractual responsibility to the consignor. Such contracting does not involve a transaction between the shipper and the carrier and the shipper is not privy to the minutiae of such contract for carriage. The appellant often, even in the absence of shippers, contract for space or ....

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.... where the freight forwarder is undertaking all the legal responsibility for the transportation of the goods and undertakes all the attendant risks, he is providing the service of transportation of goods, from a place in India to a place outside India. He is bearing al the risk and liability for transportation. In such cases they are not covered under the category of intermediary, which by definition excludes a person who provides a service on his account.' 6. The point to be appreciated in the light of the decisions is that the appellant herein is working on principle to principle basis and there is no principal agent relationship between the appellant and the ships/airlines or customers. The appellant is registered as a Multimodal Transp....