“Opinion poll” means any service designed to secure information on public opinion regarding social, economic, political or other issues. “Opinion poll agency” means any person engaged in providing any service in relation to opinion poll. “Taxable service” means any service provided or to be provided to any person, by an opinion poll agency, in relation to opinion poll.
“Travel agent” means any person engaged in providing any service connected with booking of passage for travel, but does not include air travel agent and rail travel agent. “Taxable Service” means any service provided or to be provided to any person, by a travel agent, in relation to the booking of passage for travel.
Transport of Goods by Rail Service means any service provided or to be provided to any person, by any other person, in relation to transport of goods by rail, in any manner. Transport of goods in containers by rail- The levy is on transport of goods in containers by rail. Service provided by Indian Railways is excluded. Suitable abatement for the amount paid by such service providers to railways for haulage services will be prescribed separately. The levy will, therefore, be restricted only to that portion of the consideration received and retained by the service provider for the services provided.
“Survey and exploration of mineral” means geological, geophysical or other prospecting, surface or sub-surface surveying or map making service, in relation to location or exploration of deposits of mineral, oil or gas. “Taxable service” means any service provided or to be provided to any person, by any person, in relation to survey and exploration of mineral.
Service tax on Transport of Goods through Pipeline / Conduit Services means any service provided or to be provided to any person, by any other person, in relation to transport of goods other than water, through pipeline or other conduit. (Section 65 (105) (zzz) of Finance Act, 1994 as amended)
“Outdoor caterer” means a caterer engaged in providing services in connection with catering at a place other than his own but including a place provided by way of tenancy or otherwise by the person receiving such services. “Taxable service” means any service provided or to be provided to any person, by an outdoor caterer.
Storage and Warehousing Services means any service provided or to be provided to any person, by a storage or warehouse keeper in relation to storage and warehousing of goods. “Storage and warehousing” includes storage and warehousing services for goods including liquids and gases but does not include any service provided for storage of agricultural produce or any service provided by a cold storage.
Steamer Agent’s Services means any service provided or to be provided to a shipping line, by a steamer agent in relation to a ship’s husbandry or dispatch or any administrative work related thereto as well as the booking, advertising or canvassing of cargo, including container feeder services.
As per clause (zr) of section 65(105), service tax is leviable on any service provided to any person, by a cargo handling agency in relation to cargo handling service. The argument of the Appellant is that they could never understand that they were a cargo handling agency because they are in the business of warehousing of goods for which they were already paying service tax. This was a service provided by the contractors and the charges were recovered from the customers who use such services. But as a corporation owned by the Rajasthan State they did not want to enter into dispute on this issue with the Union of India and as soon as the issue was pointed out to them they started paying tax for the charges collected by them and paid to their contractor who was providing the service.
India is sitting on unused foreign aid of over Rs. 1 lakh crore reflecting inadequate planning by ministries like urban development, water resources and energy, a report by government auditor Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) has said. “As on March 31, 2010, unutilised committed external assistance was of the order of Rs.1,05,339 crore,” the CAG said in its report tabled in Parliament on Friday.
