M/s Ipca Laboratories Ltd. Vs Commissioner of CE & ST (CESTAT Mumbai)
Regulatory services are not in the nature of “Scientific and Technical Consultancy Services”
In order to assert that an organization is providing scientific or technical consultancy, two basic ingredients have to be established. The organization must be a science or technology institution. The consultancy must relate to one or more disciplines of science or technology.
We are of the view that the regulatory services are not in the nature of “Scientific and Technical Consultancy Services” and therefore no Service Tax under the said head, the demand is also set aside.
In absence of online database access, no Service Tax can be demanded under the head of “Online Database Access and Retrieval Service”
The next issue relates to demand under the head of “Online Database Access and Retrieval Service”. It has been argued that they are using service of M/s Dialogue Corporation, USA for the purpose of data storage. It has been argued that the said service provider does not provide “online” services and there is no “online” service provider. In absence of online database access, no Service Tax can be demanded under the head of “Online Database Access and Retrieval Service”. The demand on this count is also set aside.
