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2014 (9) TMI 253 - AT - Service TaxLevy of penalty for belated payment of service tax - penalty u/s 76 - appellant has discharged the service tax liability along with interest albeit belatedly and was done on his own - Held that:- having discharged the service tax liability which is not modified by the lower authorities, the provisions of Section 73 (3) of the Finance Act, 1994 will come into play as there is no allegation in the show cause notice that there is an intention to evade payment of service tax liability. Reliance is placed on decision of the Karnataka High Court in Adecco Flexione Workforce Solution Limited [2011 (9) TMI 114 - KARNATAKA HIGH COURT] Karnataka and in CST, Banglore vs. Ahead Info Technologies India Pvt. Limited - [2014 (8) TMI 785 - KARNATAKA HIGH COURT]. In these pronouncements, the Karnataka High Court enunciated the principle that where an assessee has paid both the service tax and interest before issuance of a show cause notice under the Act, subsection 3 of section 73 of the Act, prohibits initiation of proceedings for recovery of penalty. When there is a finding of fact that this was not a case of non-payment of Service Tax with intent to evade the payment of the same, question of applying Subsection (4) of Section 73 of the Finance Act, 1994 and resultantly exclusion of application of Subsection (3) thereof, would not arise. - no penalty - decided in favor of assessee.
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