Case Law Details
Religare Technova Global Solutions Ltd. Vs Commissioner of Service Tax (CESTAT Bangalore)
Conclusion: Since the activities undertaken by assessee were covered under the Information Technology Services as taxable under Section 65(105)(zzzze) with effect from May 16, 2008 and prior to 16-5-2008, even the services rendered by assessee was excluded from the scope of consulting engineer’s service and also the judicial pronouncements made it clear that they would not be covered under the management consultancy services.
Held: Assessee-company was developer of an internet based trading software ‘Trade Anywhere’ and licensing the same to its customers who were primarily share broking houses / financial institutions / banks and media portals. It for providing such software license, had entered into Software License Agreements with various share broking houses, etc. For licensing of software, the company was collecting charges termed as “license fee” and on this value it was collecting and discharging CST @ 4% for interstate sales and excise duty. Department entertained the view that assessee was liable to pay service tax under Management or Business Consultant Service as provided in Finance Act, 1994 but was not paying the same and had also not informed the department about non-payment of service tax on Management or Business Consultant Service. It was held that in the case of IBM India Pvt. Ltd. that ERP implementation service was definitely for use in furtherance of business and commerce and the service under dispute was for the implementation. So, implementation of the ERP services was specifically covered under the information technology service, which was effective only from 16-5-2008. Under these circumstances, it could not be liable to Service Tax for a period prior to that. In the present case, the entire period was prior to 16-5-2008. The appellants had clearly shown that prior to 16-5-2008, even the services rendered by the appellant were excluded from the scope of consulting engineer’s service and also the judicial pronouncements made it clear that they would not be covered under the management consultancy services.
FULL TEXT OF THE CESTAT JUDGEMENT
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