TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (1) TMI 1637
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....2. The relevant facts are that the Appellant is a registered service provider of Commercial or Industrial Construction Service. The Department, on verification of the documents produced by the Appellant as sought from them, was of the view that the appellant had undertaken the work of tiles laying, plumbing, carpentry, aluminium/wooden partitions, joinery works, carpet laying etc as per the drawings provided by their clients. The appellant had discharged service tax on 33% of the gross amount collected by them after availing abatement of 67% as provided under Notification No.15/2004-ST dated 10.09.2004 and Notfn. No. 01/2006-ST dated 01.03.2006. The appellant also intimated vide their letter dated 01.07.2009 that they had undertaken Interio....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....n equivalent penalty under Section 78 of the Finance Act, 1994. The appeal preferred by the Appellant came to be rejected vide the impugned order and thus the Appellant, being aggrieved and dissatisfied by the impugned order, is now in appeal before this Tribunal. 3. Shri. N. Viswanathan, Ld. Advocate appearing on behalf of the Appellant, submitted that the Appellant was engaged in the work of tiles laying, plumbing, carpentry, aluminium/wooden partitions, joinery works, carpet laying etc., with his men and material and was discharging the applicable VAT on the deemed sale under the works contract in terms of the VAT Act. The appellant had registered himself under the taxable entry of commercial and industrial construction service and wa....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....services within the ambit of completion and finishing services under the Commercial and Industrial Construction Service to deny the benefit of the notification is not legal and needs to be set aside. 6. Ld. Counsel also submits, without prejudice to the aforesaid contentions and in the alternate, that the demand is also barred by limitation since the appellant was regularly filing returns and that it is an admitted fact on record that the appellant had made his entire activity known to the Department as early as on 01.07.2009. It is further submitted that even otherwise the Department itself had also issued an order earlier confirming the differential service tax payable under works contract service, which is proof enough that the Depart....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....en & Toubro Ltd, 2015 (39) STR 913 (SC), while examining the question whether service tax can be levied on indivisible works contracts prior to the introduction, on 1st June, 2007, of the Finance Act, 2007 which expressly makes such works contracts liable to service tax, held as under: "24. A close look at the Finance Act, 1994 would show that the five taxable services referred to in the charging Section 65(105) would refer only to service contracts simpliciter and not to composite works contracts. This is clear from the very language of Section 65(105) which defines "taxable service" as "any service provided". All the services referred to in the said sub-clauses are service contracts simpliciter without any other element in them, ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....ve referred to and dealt with such notifications will have to be disregarded. Since the levy itself of service tax has been found to be non-existent, no question of any exemption would arise. With these observations, these appeals are disposed of. (emphasis supplied) 12. As we have noticed supra, in the instant case, undisputedly the services rendered by the appellant involve deemed sale of material used in the execution of the works contract and on which VAT in terms of the VAT provisions has been duly discharged. The impugned order has upheld the order in original which seeks to classify the said services provided by the appellant as completion and finishing services under "commercial or industrial construction service" to sustain t....