TMI BlogImposition of Service Tax on services rendered by Custom House Agents and Steamer Agents regarding.X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Finance Act, 1997, the taxable service rendered by a Custom House Agent means any service provided to a client by a Custom House Agent in relation to the entry or departure of conveyances or the import or export of goods. The value of the taxable service in relation to the service provided by a Custom House Agent to a client has agent from the client for services rendered in any manner in relation to import or export of goods. The service tax is chargeable @ 5% on the value of the taxable service. 2.3 The services rendered by the Custom House Agent are not merely limited to the clearing of the import and export consignment. The CHA also renders the service of loading/ unloading of import or export goods from /at the premises of the exporter / importer, the packing, weighment, measurement of the export goods, the transportation of the export goods to the customs station or the import goods from the customs station to the importer's premises, carrying out of various statutory and other formalities such as payment of expenses on account of octroi, destuffing / pelletisation, terminal handling, fumigation, drawback/ DEEC processing, survey / amendment fees, dock fees, repairing and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n raises the bill to the client. It has been decided that in such cases, the sub-contracting CHA will not be required to pay service tax on the bills raised by him on the main CHA, The service tax will be payable by the CHA who provides the actual service to the client and raises the bill to the client. 2.7 A CHA may have various branch offices located at different stations but all these branch offices do not raise the bills and only the main or central office will be raising the bills. In such cases, only the central office should be registered with the Department. 2.8 Sometimes, the bills raised by the CHA are not entirely paid by the client and the CHA is forced to give discounts. In such cases where the final bill raised is lower than the initial bill, it may be mentioned that the law provides for claiming of refund of excess service tax paid within six months from the date of payment of tax. If the CHA can produce evidence of having charged less services fee, he may claim refund of excess service tax paid, if any, as per the provisions of law. 3. STEAMER AGENTS 3.1 The expression 'Steamer Agents' has been defined to mean any person who undertakes, either directly ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... per voyage, per vessel basis and further that the registration for service tax purposes should be done only of their seaport offices. It has been decided that only such sea port offices of the Steamer Agent should be registered for service tax purpose which are raising the bill to the shipping lines. The branch offices in ICDs which are just sales offices and do not raise any bills to the shipping line, need not be registered. This is for the reasons that billing is done by the sea port offices and not the branch offices. 4. MISCELLANEOUS 4.1 It may be mentioned that the provisions of Section 68 and 76 of the Finance Act, 1994, as amended by the Finance Act, 1997 will also come into force from 15th June 1997. Section 67(2) of the Finance Act, 1994 provides that the service tax collected during a month shall be deposited to the Government account by the 15th of the succeeding month. Section 68(3) of the Finance Act, 1994 as amended, provides that a person responsible for collecting the service tax who fails to collect such tax shall be liable to pay service tax to the Government within 75 days from the close of the month in which the service was rendered. Section 76 furthe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... intimated shortly. Any person, responsible for collecting the service tax who fails to collect the tax shall, notwithstanding such failure, be liable to pay such tax to the credit of the Central Govt. within 75 days from the end of the month in which the service was rendered. c. Interest on Delayed Payment of Service Tax If any assessee fails to pay or credit the Service Tax or any part thereof in time, he shall pay simple interest @1.5% for every month or part of a month by which such payment / crediting of the tax or any part thereof is delayed. d. Filling of Quarterly Returns A Quarterly Return in Form ST-3 (in triplicate) should be filed within 15 days of the end of the preceding quarter, i.e. latest by 15th July, 15th October, 15th January and 15th April for the quarters ending June, September, December and March respectively. e. Penalty for failure to collect or pay Service Tax i. If any person responsible for collecting Service Tax fails to collect such tax, he shall be penalised a sum equal to the amount of Service Tax which he failed to collect, besides paying the actual amount of tax and the interest thereon. ii. If any person ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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