TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (8) TMI 1516
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....I, whereby the learned Commissioner has confirmed a demand of service tax amounting to Rs.24,81,931/- under Section 73(1) of the Finance Act, 1994, along with applicable interest under Section 75 of the Act. A penalty of Rs.5000/- under Section 77 and a penalty of Rs.24,81,931/- under Section 78 of the Act were also imposed by the learned Commissioner. 2. Briefly stated, the facts of the case are that the Appellant, M/s Punjab Infrastructure Management Co., had been engaged as "management contractor" for operation and maintenance of bus terminals/bus stands at Nawanshahar and Moga by Government of Punjab/its undertaking i.e. M/s PUNBUS to operate and maintain these bus stands on behalf of the Government of Punjab or PUNBUS. The Departmen....
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....tutory levy fixed by the State Government. The Appellant had no authority to negotiate or determine the rate of adda-fee and merely collected the same in accordance with the Government mandate. He also submits that the agreement governing the relationship exists solely between the Appellant and PUNBUS/State Government, and there is no contractual arrangement between the Appellant and the individual bus operators. 4.2 He further submits that it is a settled law that service tax under the Finance Act, 1994 is a contract-based levy and presupposes the existence of a service provider, a service recipient, and a contractual nexus between them. He further argues that in the absence of any contract or commercial arrangement between the Appellan....
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....dings of the impugned order. 6. We have considered the submissions made by both the parties and perused the material on record. We note that the only issue involved in the present appeal is whether the Appellant is liable to pay service tax under the category of "Support Services of Business or Commerce" as alleged by the Department. 6.1 We find that this issue is no longer res integra and has been considered by this Tribunal in detail in the case of Rohan And Rajdeep Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. (supra), wherein the Tribunal, after considering all the submissions and facts, has held that the collection of adda-fee under a State concession agreement, in the absence of a direct contractual relationship with bus operators, does not constitu....
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....y the respondents in the writ appeals as representing temporary transfers thereby attracting the levy of Service Tax, while other contracts are understood by the respondents as resulting in perpetual transfers ie., permanent and not temporary, thus outside the purview of levy of Service Tax. We are of the view that the observations so made by the learned Judge represent a truncated rather incomplete adjudication, warrant interference." 12.2 Similarly, the Hon'ble Gujarat High Court in the case of Mohit Minerals Pvt Ltd [2020 (33) GSTL 321 (Guj.)] has held as under: "201. ....... Hence, it is a tax on consumption and not on business. It is a contract based levy which depends on the contract between the supplier and the reci....