Service tax on bank commitment charges referred to Larger Bench amid conflicting Tribunal views on taxability.

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....Conflicting coordinate Bench decisions on whether bank commitment charges for keeping sanctioned loan funds available are exigible to service tax required a Larger Bench reference. One view treated the charges as consideration for the bank's contractual commitment to lend, with a clear quid pro quo and no character as interest; the other view, invoking judicial discipline, found that earlier coordinate decisions could not be ignored and that the matter should be placed before the President for constitution of a Larger Bench. The substantive taxability question, along with the precedential effect of the appellant's earlier case, was left open for authoritative determination.....