Central Government has clarified that there is NO proposal in the Union Budget 2017-18 to levy 5% Service Tax on Healthcare Services, as reported in certain Social Media circles....

Availment of Exemptions Under section 93 of Finance Act, 1994, the Government is empowered to exempt generally or subject to such conditions as may be specified in the notification, taxable service of any specified description from the whole or any part of the service tax leviable thereon. During the course of this performance audit we [&...

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has sought an extension for the waiver on service tax on railway freight. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had earlier given a tax holiday to the Railways till December 31. Banerjee now wants the tax relief extended ...

The Labour and Employment Ministry has requested the Finance Ministry to keep Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) and Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) schemes out of the ambit of service tax as they are social security schemes. “If the provisions of ser...

Post the finance ministry's move to include eight new services such as domestic air travel and health under the ambit of service tax from 1 July, the revenue department has clarified that payments made before that date for services yet to be delivered would be exempted from the tax....

Starting next month, there will be no service tax on construction of some low-cost housing, power distribution, foreign travelers in transit, those flying to and from the Northeast, services within ports and airports, and certain tournaments and championships....

Life insurance companies want the current system of tax exemption for insurance maturity proceeds to be continued. The proposed Direct Taxes Code has suggested deduction of tax on the final payout, while exempting the policy premium at the time of contribution and the interest on it....

The life insurance industry wants service tax on fund management charges to be withdrawn, as is the case with mutual funds. The Life Insurance Council-the representative body of life insurers-will shortly make a presentation to the finance ministry urging the introduction of a uniform taxation platform for the life insurance sector....

The Supreme Court has admitted a petition which has raised an important question: Is selling mutual fund products a taxable service?  The apex court headed by Justice S H Kapadia admitted an appeal filed by Commissioner of Service Tax stating that sale of mutual funds (MFs) amounted to service for the purpose of levy of […]...

The Finance Ministry has extended service tax exemption to five more export promotion councils (EPCs). With this move, the total number of EPCs that could avail themselves of service tax exemption has gone up to 27 across the country. Budget 2009-10 had provided exemption on the service tax leviable under “club or association servicesâ...