2026 (8) TMI 1213

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....s" and for such purpose, got themselves registered with the service tax department. During the disputed period from 2005-2006 to 2009-2010, the appellants had availed the CENVAT Credit of service tax paid on the vehicle insurance taken for the cars belonging to the appellants, accidental policy insurance taken for the employees and insurance premium paid for medical insurance. Availment of CENVAT Credit by the appellants was disputed by the department on the ground that those disputed services have no nexus with the output service provided by the appellants and thus, taking of CENVAT Credit on such services are not confirming to the definition of "input service", provided under Rule 2(l) of the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004. On the basis of suc....

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....thereby that any service(s) used/utilized by the assessee for accomplishing the business purpose, should be considered as input service, for the purpose of CENVAT benefit. In this context, the law is well settled that the phrase "includes" used in the definition of input service is not intended to restrict the CENVAT Credit to any specific services, particularly when the same are used/utilized by the assessee for provision of the output service. The Larger Bench of this Tribunal in the case of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd. Vs. Commissioner, Service Tax, Mumbai-II - (2024) 16 Centax 160 (Tri.-LB) has held that the disputed service viz., life insurance service etc., should be considered as input service, in view of the period involved ....

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....der the accounting standards as per CAS-4 and, therefore, the appellant is entitled for availing the credit of Service Tax paid on group insurance premium even if the policy covers members of the family of the employees. The said decision was also followed by the Hon'ble Karnataka High Court in the case of Commissioner of Central Excise & Service Tax v. Micro Labs Ltd. - 2012 (26) S.T.R. 383 (Kar.) = 2011 (270) E.L.T. 156 (Kar.) wherein it was held that group insurance health policy, though a welfare measure, is an obligation cast under the statute that the employer has to obey and, therefore, the policy taken by the employer is a service constituting activity relating to business which is covered under the 'input service' definition." (....