SC asks retailers to pay 50% of outstanding service tax

Supreme Court on 14.10.2011 modified it’s earlier stay order of 28.9.2011 in the SLP filed by petitioners Retailers Association of India v. UOI against the Bombay High Court order that had upheld renting as a service with retrospective effect.Petitioners are now required to pay half of their liabilities in the next six months in three installments.

The court ruled on a petition filed on 28 September by the Retailers Association of India (RAI) and Multiplex Association of India challenging the Bombay high court’s 4 August judgement that made the tax applicable with retrospective effect from 2007 in Maharashtra.   The top court will take a decision on the remaining 50% after a final hearing on the matter.