Case Law Details
ATC Tires Private Limited Vs Commissioner of G.S.T. and Central Excise (CESTAT Chennai)
CESTAT Chennai held that SEZ unit/ developer is eligible to claim exemption from services tax even if the services are consumed outside the SEZ so long as the services are being used for authorized operations.
Facts- The appellant being a part of the Alliance Tire Group (ATG), is a leading manufacturer of global off-highway tyres. The Corporate Office of the appellant is in Mumbai and the appellant also has two manufacturing units in India: one is an Export Oriented Undertaking (EOU) located at Dahej, Gujarat and the other one is a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) unit located at SIPCOT SEZ, Tirunelveli. The present dispute pertains to the appellant’s SEZ unit.
The SEZ unit i.e., the appellant, had obtained a Letter of Approval dated 03.07.2019 issued by the Central Government under Section 3 of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 (‘SEZ Act’), as per which the approval so granted was for carrying out authorized operations of manufacturing pneumatic tyres of rubber, tyre flaps and inner tubes of rubber.
It appears that there was an audit of the appellant’s books of account by the Audit Team of the Service Tax Department during July 2018 and November 2018, during which various issues were pointed out and it is a matter of record that the appellant did file its reply to each of such issues pointed out during the course of audit.
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