Fifth Avenue Sourcing (P. ) Ltd. VS Commissioner of Service Tax, Chennai

Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

CUSTOM EXCISE & SERVICE TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL, MADRAS
MS. JYOTI BALASUNDARAM, Vice President, Dr. Chittaranjan Satapathy
Fifth Avenue Sourcing (P.) Ltd. -Appellant
Versus
Commissioner of Service Tax, Chennai -Respondent
Stay Order No. 420 OF 2010 Application No. ST/S/158/2009 Appeal No. ST/254/2009
Decided On : 13-09-2010

Advocates Appeared:
K.S. Naveen Kumar,V.V. Hariharan

ORDER

Ms. Jyoti Balasundaram, Vice President - Heard both sides on the application for waiver of predeposit of service tax of Rs. 93,60,126 together with interest and penalty of Rs. 94 lakhs. The demand arises as a result of holding that the assessees provided Business Auxiliary Services (BAS) to foreign customers and an amount of Rs. 2,55,615 which is the admitted liability for the period subsequent to the introduction of section 66A in the Finance Act, 1994 with effect from 18-4-2006 stands paid by the assessees.

2. We find that the assessees have made out a strong prima facie case for waiver in the light of the Tribunal’s decision in the case of Fifth Avenue v. CST [2009] 21 STT 485 (Chennai - CESTAT) where the services rendered by the assessees (who are a part of same group company as the present applicants) were in the form of evaluation of prospective customers, processing of purchase orders, customer management, processing of transactions, information and tracking of delivery schedules, operational assistance for marketing, formulation of customer service and pricing policies, managing distribution and logistics, which were held by the Tribunal to be support services of business or commerce and not covered as BAS. The services rendered by the assessees herein being some what identical to the services rendered by the assessees in the decision cited supra, we waive predeposit of amounts in question by accepting, prima facie, that the applicants provided support services of business or commerce which came into the statute only with effect from 1-5-2006 and stay recovery thereof during the pendency of the appeal.

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