Case Law Details
Messrs Mahasagar Travels Limited Vs Commissioner of Central Excise & ST (CESTAT Ahmedabad)
Briefly stated the facts of the case are that both the appellants are engaged in the inter-state and intra-state transportation of passengers and registered as Tour Operators and paying service tax in normal course of their business. However, Notification No. 20/2009-ST dated 07.07.2009 was issued having retrospective effect which notified that levy of service tax on tour operators was required to be discontinued. Accordingly, the service tax which was paid by the appellants become refundable and consequently they filed refund application in respect of service tax paid in routine course. Though the refund was sanctioned but the same was credited in the Consumer Welfare Fund on the ground that appellant have recovered service tax from their customers and the same was shown as expenditure in the books of accounts.
Learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants argued that merely because the service tax paid by the appellant was shown as expenditure in the books of accounts that itself does not prove that the incidence of service tax was passed on to any other person therefore, the refund could not have been credited in the Consumer Welfare Fund.
CESTAT held that, since the appellant have paid service tax in the routine course and subsequently when the service tax was made exempted retrospectively, the incidence of service tax stood passed on. Therefore, the lower authorities have rightly credited the refund amount in the Consumer Welfare Fund.
FULL TEXT OF THE CESTAT AHMEDABAD ORDER
Please become a Premium member. If you are already a Premium member, login here to access the full content.
