TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (11) TMI 513
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.... to the provisions of Section 73(3) of the Act. 2. Briefly stated, the appellant is engaged in the manufacture of air compressor, air motors, and parts thereof. The appellant was registered under the Central Excise Act and the Service Tax Act for discharging its liabilities, including those under reverse charge mechanism (RCM). Subsequently, the appellant was registered with the GST department. During the course of audit EA-2000 conducted by the officers of Central GST Audit, Ahmedabad, on reconciling ST-3 returns with the ledger and balance sheet of the company, it was noticed that during the period, July 2015 to March 2017, the appellant did not discharge the service tax liability towards Rent-a-Cab and Legal Consultancy services under....
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....in terms of section 78 of the Act, it is necessary to appreciate whether the revenue has been able to establish the ingredients prescribed for invocation of the extended period. The submission of the learned Counsel is that the extended period of limitation is not invocable as the issue arises out of the observations made during the audit and there is no suppression of facts, fraud, collusion, willful mis-statement with an intent to evade payment of service tax on the part of the appellant and has relied on the decision of the Apex Court in Commissioner of C.Ex., Bangalore versus M/s. Pragati Concrete Products, 2015-VIL-166-SC-CE. Further submitted that in order to allege suppression, there must be a positive act on the part of the assessee....
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.... by the Division Bench of this Tribunal in M&B Engineering Limited- 2024(7)TMI 313 (Tri. Ahd.), where it has been held that once the duty and interest is paid by the party during the course of audit, it cannot be further faulted with for its conduct to penalise them. The observations of the Bench are: "..... Payments of duty with interest, remove the stains of delay from the conduct of the party and bring back sparkles of bona fide conduct. This court taking note of the same having been done before issue of show cause notice and as part of audit and before any enforcement/penal action, allows the appeal of the party." Further, the Tribunal in Commissioner of Central Excise, Pune -III versus Wings Travels 2017(47)STR 225, (Tri.-M....
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....ntion of provisions of the Act with an intent to evade tax, warranting invocation of provisions relating to penalty. Reliance is placed on decision of the Karnataka High Court in CCE & ST, LLU, Bangalore v Adecco Flexione Workforce Solution Ltd - 2012 (26) S.T.R. 3 (Karnataka) and in CST, Bangalore v. Ahead Info Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. - 2012 (26) S.T.R. J25 (Kar.). In these pronouncements, the Karnataka High Court enunciated the principle that where an assessee has paid both the Service Tax and interest before issuance of a show cause notice under the Act, sub-section (3) of Section 73 of the Act, prohibits initiation of proceedings for recovery of penalty". 9. The submission of the learned Counsel is that while undertaking payment....
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....the jurisdictional High Court is binding on me. Reference is invited to the decision of the Tribunal in the case of CCE & ST versus Andhra Sugars Limited - 2015 (319) ELT 297 (AP) and also by the Larger Bench in the case of JK Tyre Industries Limited versus Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise, 2016 (340) ELT 193 (Tribunal-LB) where it has been held that the Tribunal is bound by the decision of the jurisdictional High Court. 11. Considering the facts of the present case, I find it is not that the appellant is not registered with the service tax department nor is it that they have not been paying service tax under RCM. Rather it is a case of unintentional short payment of service tax under RCM on some transactions relating to Rent-a-C....