TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (10) TMI 734
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.... 08/COMMR/CEX/BPL-I/2013 dt. 24.01.2013 3 Show Cause Notice no. 83/commr/st/BPL-1/08 DT. 17.10.08 4 Period of dispute 2003-04 to 2007-08 5 Service Tax involved 2,40,13,313/- Description (for ST/50242/2021) 6 Order in Original No. [De NOVO] 37/Pr.COMMR/ST/BPLII/2019 dt. 31.07.2019 7 Order in Original No. 02/COMMR/ST/BPL-II/2015 dt.08.01.2015 8 Show Cause Notice no. 31/commr/st/BPL-1/2013 DT. 17.06.2013 9 Period of dispute April 08-March 12 10 Service Tax involved 6,60,84,109/- Description (for ST/52988/2016) 11 Order in Original No 43/PC/ST/BPL-ST/2016 dt. 30.06.2016 12 Show Cause Notice no. 15/ADJ/COMMRS/ST/BPLST/2015 dt.16.04.2015 13 Period of dispute 01.04.2012-31.03.2014 14 Service Tax involved 2,62,85,622/- 15 Interest u/s 75 16 Penalty under section 76, 77 and 78, of Finance Act 1994 2. Briefly stated that the appellants are undertaking of Government of Madhya Pradesh, Public Financial Institutions and lead banks of State. They were registered with the Service Tax Department for providing taxable servi....
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....e training provided by the appellant is not aimed at imparting knowledge in any field or for imparting any skill and, therefore, the service is not taxable. 4. The issues in all the three appeals are common and hence they are taken up together. As noted by the Adjudicating Authority, the appellant did not dispute its liability on "franchisee service" and "renting of immovable property service" and discharged the service tax thereon. We may first deal with the services of "Commercial Training or Coaching Services" brought into the service tax net w.e.f. 01.07.2003. Section 65 of the Act defines "Commercial Training or Coaching" as under :- "Commercial Training, or Coaching" means any training or coaching provided by a commercial training or coaching centre & Section 65(27) of the Act reads as under: "commercial training or coaching centre" means any institute or establishment providing commercial training or coaching for imparting skill or knowledge or lessons on any subject or field other than the sports, with or without issuance of a certificate and includes coaching or tutorial classes but does not include pre-school coaching and training centre or any instit....
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....of any other institute or establishment, leading to issuance of any certificate or diploma, degree or educational qualification recognised by law, subject to the condition that this exemption shall not be applicable if the charges for such services are paid by the person undergoing such course or curriculum directly to the commercial training or coaching centre. In this regard, we find that the Memorandum of Understanding [MOU] between the appellant and M.P. Bhoj (Open) University at Point No.20(c) provides: "prescribe fee for study material and examination will be collected by CEDMAP with the coordination of the principal, and sent to M.P. Bhoj (Open) University in the form of demand draft drawn in favour of Registrar, M.P. Bhoj (Open) University payable at Bhopal within the time specified by the University. 7. In view of the MOU (referred above), the restriction prescribed in the notification is not applicable as the charges or fee are not paid directly to the commercial training or coaching centre. The appellant has only collected the fee from the students/persons undergoing the course and remitted the same to the university. The appellant has merely facilitated by acting as ....
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.... Parallel College Association, The learned Single Judge held that parallel colleges/educational institutions conducting any course, which is a requirement to write examination to obtain degree or certificate awarded by any agency created by law is entitled to exemption under the definition Clause 65(27) of the Act and hence, they are not liable to pay any service tax. The observations of the High are quoted below:- "4. The curriculam prescribed for the examination and the degree certificate awarded to private students and students studying in regular colleges, whether aided or self-financed affiliated to University, are the same. Therefore there is no distinction between the two classes of students namely, the students studying in the colleges affiliated to Universities and private students who take coaching in parallel colleges to write the same examinations. While the students studying in affiliated colleges cannot be subjected to service tax along with tuition fees and other fees levied by the management of those colleges students, who are studying in parallel colleges will have to bear the service tax as an additional burden along with tuition fees and other charges co....
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.... with centres preparing students for entrance examinations and therefore, do not fall under the category of "commercial training or coaching service". The observations of the Bench are: "12. The very fact, the word commercial has been used indicates that the word "commercial" qualifies the Commercial coaching or training centre. It doesn't qualify coaching or training. It qualifies the centre. As long as the institution is registered under the Societies Registration Act and also exempted from income tax, it cannot be considered as a commercial centre. Therefore, no service tax is leviable under the category of Commercial Coaching or Training." 10. The next issue is regarding the grant-in-aid received for training provided under Centrally Sponsored Schemes. The Board Circular No. 125/dated 30.07.2010 have clarified that the grant received for training provided under Centrally Sponsored Schemes is not taxable. In APITCO Ltd versus Commissioner of Service Tax, Hyderabad [2010 (20) S.T.R. 475(Tri. -Bang)], where the appellant an organisation promoted jointly by several financial institutions and nationalised and other banks received grants- in-aid from the Central and State....
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....by the appellant. The fact is not under dispute that such contributed amount was never given by such service receiver to the appellant. Thus, the gross value for the computation of service tax liability in the hands of the appellant will not take into consideration the amount of contribution made by the service receiver M/s. HNGIL directly into the respective heads of account. Therefore, in our considered view, service tax demand cannot be confirmed on the employer's contributed amount towards P.F., E.P.F. and E.S.I." The issue is squarely covered by the aforesaid decision of the Tribunal and, therefore, this amount is not covered under the definition of Gross Value of Taxable Services for Manpower Supply. 12. The service tax on the appellant under the category of "Business Auxiliary Service" has been proposed in the show cause notice as the appellant had acted as business correspondent for implementation of IT enabled financial inclusion scheme of Reserve Bank of India for State Bank of India. As pointed out by the learned Counsel, we find that the show cause notice does not refer to the specific clause which would have covered the case of the appellant and in the absenc....