Balmer Lawrie and Co. Ltd. Vs Commissioner of GST & Central Excise (CESTAT Chennai)
Summary: The Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, Chennai, considered whether the freight component and commercial mark-up recovered by Balmer Lawrie and Co. Ltd. from customers for arranging international ocean/air transportation could be taxed as “support service of business or commerce” for the period April 2010 to March 2015. The dispute arose from an adjudication order classifying the activity as taxable and confirming service tax, interest and an equivalent penalty under Section 78(1) of the Finance Act, 1994.
The Tribunal examined the dispute under two statutory regimes. For the period up to 30.06.2012, the applicable positive-list regime under Section 65(105) did not bring transportation of goods by vessel or aircraft from outside India to a customs station in India within service-tax liability as an independent taxable event. From 01.07.2012, Section 66B operated with the negative list in Section 66D, and the Tribunal found that transportation of goods by vessel or aircraft from a place outside India to a customs station in India was expressly excluded under Section 66D(p)(ii) – Negative List relating to transportation of goods” href=”https://taxguru.in/service-tax/updated-list-exempt-services-service-tax.html” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Section 66D(p)(ii), with that exclusion continuing until 31.05.2016.
