5. I have considered the submissions made by both the sides. First of all it is required to be examined whether the service is covered by the definition or not? To appreciate the facts better, the annexure to the contract which is relevant & which is very briefly worded is reproduced below.

What constitutes ‘Service’ is certainly a subject matter of discussion. Its plain meaning is an Act of helpful Activity or Rendering of Assistance or Help. Service is generally a feeling in the form of efforts and excludes sale of goods or property or commodities. It pre-supposes existence of a Service Provider. For Service Tax purposes, if there is no Service, then there should be no Tax.

services provided by Chartered Accountants, Cost Accountants and Company Secretaries as well as by engineering and management consultants are presently charged to Service Tax. Although there is a school of thought that legal consultants do not provide any service to their client, I hold my distinguished predecessor in high esteem and disagree! As such, I propose to extend Service Tax on advice, consultancy or technical assistance provided in the field of law. This tax would not be applicable in case the service provider or the service receiver is an individual.”

In continuation of previous articles, elaborating the difficulties in getting the refund claim under different services, we in this article are unveiling the problems existing in the Service tax refund mechanism under Services of purchase or sale of foreign currency, including money changing provided to an exporter in relation to export goods (Section 65(105)(zm)) & (Section 65(105)(zzk)) and (i) Services provided in relation to collection of export bills, (ii) Services provided in relation to export letters of credit such as advising commission, advising amendment, confirmation charges (Section 65(105)(zm)).

The Finance Act, 2008 brought some new services under the Service Tax net. One of them is Information Technology Software Service. Inclusion of a new services category — Information Technology Software Services — within the ambit of Service Tax legislation has created confusion among software firms. The levy of this new service along with other services has become effective from 16 May, 2008.

M/s. Nirulas Corner House Pvt. Ltd. („the Appellants?) were engaged in the food and confectionary business. They had entered into an agreement with M/s. Sagar to permit them to run restaurants in the name of “Nirulas” as per the specified plans with regard to the location of the restaurant, area, interiors and other details. As per the terms of the agreement, it is the Appellants who decide the items that are to be sold by the restaurant, the method of preparation of the items, the quality and the prices of the items. The Appellants have even placed their employees in the restaurants to supervise the operations.

Whereas the Central Government is satisfied that a practice was generally prevalent regarding levy of service tax ( including non-levy thereof ), under section 66 of the Finance Act, 1994 ( 32 of 1994) (hereinafter referred to as the Finance Act), on taxable service namely ‘business auxiliary services’ specified in sub-clause (zzb) of clause 105 of section 65 of the Finance Act provided by a person ( hereinafter called the ‘service provider’) to any other person ( hereinafter called the ‘service receiver’) during the course of manufacture or processing of alcoholic beverages by the service provider, for or on behalf of the service receiver, and that such services being a taxable service were liable to service tax under the said sub-clause (zzb) of clause 105 of section 65 of the Finance Act with effect from 1 st day of September 2009, which was not being levied according to the said practice during the period commencing from the 1 st day of September, 2009 and ending with the 22nd day of September, 2009;

In this unbroken series of articles on the issues relating to the problems faced by exporters under refund claim mechanism we herein are unveiling the VI th part of the same. Herein we are uncovering the problems existing in the Service tax refund mechanism under Business Auxiliary Services provided by commission agent to cause sale of goods exported (Section 65[105][zzb]). The problems faced by the exporters are being elaborated with the means of humorous poems and conversation between Johnny (an assessee) and his father but the main motive is to bring out the problems faced by exporters.

We have considered the submissions made at length by both sides and perused the records. The issue for determination in this case is whether the reimbursable expenditure incurred by the appellant is chargeable to service tax or not. On perusal of the returns it appears that they had indicated this amount against the column marked as “amount billed for exempted services other than export”. It is also undisputed that the appellant has been taking this stand before the lower authorities that the amounts are reimbursable expenses. It was the claim of the appellant that they had received

The assesses claiming refund orders under Insurance services are experiencing enormous complexities in getting their refund orders passed on vague and futile justifications that not only are annoying and irritating the assessees but also deprives away the faith of assessees on the refund mechanism designed by the Government. Such reasons on which the department is refusing the refund claims on the said services are being written out hereunder as follows: -