Late-payment charges as compensatory damages are not consideration for declared services and cannot attract service tax.

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....Late-payment charges received as interest for delayed payment for industrial-gas supplies lack the consideration necessary for a service or declared service when they are compensatory damages in nature. Describing such charges as interest does not convert them into consideration for a taxable declared service. Service-tax demand on these late-payment charges was therefore unsustainable, and the impugned order was set aside.....