The notification, effective from July 1, 2003, exempts taxable services provided by call centers and medical transcription centers from the whole of the service tax under section 66 of the Finance Act, 1994. A call center is defined as a commercial entity offering assistance, help, or information for sales, telemarketing, and other customer interactions through various communication methods. A medical transcription center is defined as a commercial entity transcribing medical history and related information. This exemption was later rescinded by Notification No. 2/2006 on March 1, 2006.

Evasion of service tax - incorrect calculation of service tax - Medical Transcription Training Services under Commercial Training Coaching Services - Registrar and Transfer services for NCDEX - courier charges under banking and other financial services - Registrar Transfer Services of the commodities of NCDEX. Medical Transcription Training Services under Commercial Training Coaching Services - Held that:- Since the appellant has not contested this before us, the service tax liability confirmed ... ... ...

An Indian medical transcription company queried about the applicability of service tax for services rendered to overseas clients. Respondents clarified that such services qualify as export of service under Rule 6A of the Service Tax Rules, 1994, provided specific conditions are met, thus exempting them from service tax. It was noted that medical transcription services are part of healthcare services, which are exempt from service tax under Mega Exemption Notification No. 25/12-ST. The classification of the service was discussed, but it was agreed that since the services are provided outside the taxable territory, no service tax is applicable.

CENVAT credit - whether CENVAT credit is admissible in respect of service tax paid on input services for providing output services i.e., call centre and medical transcription centre services which were exported without payment of service tax during 2005-06? - whether these services were exempted and the refund of service tax paid on input service is liable to be granted to the appellant or otherwise? - Held that: - even if the output service which are exempted services and are exported, service ... ... ...

The circular outlines the imposition of service tax on new services following the Finance Bill, 2003, effective from July 1, 2003. New taxable services include commercial training, technical testing, maintenance, business auxiliary services, and more. Exemptions are granted to call centers, medical transcription centers, and certain vocational training institutes. Clarifications address doubts on business auxiliary services, commercial coaching, maintenance contracts, franchise services, and technical inspections. Specific exemptions are detailed for religious mandap services and service tax credits on business telephones. The document emphasizes the need for wide publicity and consultations to facilitate compliance and understanding of these changes.

Transfer pricing adjustment - selection of comparable - Held that:- Accentia Technologies Ltd.- there is no segment wise result available in case of medical transcription and billing and coding. It is not known by how much the margin is affected by trading in software. Therefore in our view this company could not be considered as a good comparable. We therefore hold that this company has to be excluded. Apex Knowledge Solutions Ltd.- annual report of the company for the relevant year shows that ... ... ...

Transfer pricing adjustments - Assignment of call options – Whether recasting of framework agreement in 2007 tantamount assignment of option rights held by the assessee under framework agreements of 2006 - Scope of transfer u/s 2(47) - transfer by nomination - Held that:- Under the framework agreements of 2007, any of wholly owned subsidiary of Vodafone PLC is a prospective nominee but would get the right to acquire share only when a nomination is made by the assessee in favour of such subsidiar... ... ...

TP Adjustment - ITES segment of its operations - Comparable selection - HELD THAT:- Acropetal Technologies Ltd., ( Acropetal ) respectfully following the aforesaid decision of the co-ordinate bench of this Tribunal in the case of Swiss Re Shared Services (India) (P.) Ltd. [ 2016 (7) TMI 1359 - ITAT BANGALORE] we hold that the engineering design services segment of Acropetal Technologies Ltd., is functionally different and hence cannot be considered as a good comparable to the assessee in the cas... ... ...

CESTAT Chandigarh allowed the appeal of a commercial coaching center providing computer training, technology-based training, and medical transcription services. The tribunal held that appellant's vocational courses fell within the exemption under Notifications 09/2003-ST and 24/04-ST, as they provided skills enabling trainees to seek employment or self-employment directly after training. The service tax demand was set aside. Regarding Cenvat credit, the tribunal found appellant correctly utilized Rs. 81,476 credit while maintaining separate accounts for input and output services, with no wrong utilization during the relevant period, making Rule 6 restrictions inapplicable.

The ITAT Mumbai remitted multiple issues back to lower authorities for fresh consideration. The tribunal directed TPO/AO to remove Mold-Tek from comparables due to derivative losses from foreign currency exposure, following precedent that such gains/losses must be considered in operating profit computation. Eclerx and Accentia Technologies were eliminated as functionally different. Working capital adjustment was remitted for reasonable percentage determination based on actual data. TDS credit issue was sent back for merit verification. The tribunal dismissed revenue's appeal on section 10A deduction computation, holding expenses excluded from export turnover must also be excluded from total turnover. Section 14A disallowance was restricted to investments yielding exempt income. TCS e-serve was excluded from comparables due to significantly higher turnover creating incomparability.

Determination of total income – Article 7 of DTAA between India and USA - CIT included receipt arising on account of the services to the Head Office in USA – Held that:- Assessee company opened a branch in Hyderabad after obtaining permission from RBI – No doubt that the assessee company has a permanent establishment in India – Branch office is also rendering services of commercial nature which has been outsourced by the Head office – Assessee is only carrying out the normal commercial activitie... ... ...

TPA - selection of comparable - Held that:- The assessee is a company engaged in the business of providing ITES [Information Technology enabled services] registered under Special economic Zones [in short SEZ] thus companies functionally dissimilar with that of assessee need to be deselected from final list. TPA on account of interest on receivables - Held that:- There cannot be any grievance where the ld Transfer Pricing Officer has considered as 30 days credit period. Even before us this credit... ... ...

TP Adjustment - Comparability - HELD THAT:- Assessee is a financial outsourcing company rendering IT enabled accounting and financial services, thus companies functionally dissimilar with that of assessee need to be deselected from final list.... ... ...

TP Adjustment - assessee challenging that Additional Commissioner is not empowered to pass an order for determining the arm s-length price - HELD THAT:- Assessee is not arguing that there is no authority from the board in favour of the learned transfer pricing officer i.e. the Additional Commissioner Of Income Tax who passed the order u/s 92CA (3) of the act. The challenge of the assessee is that that Additional Commissioner as a class of officers, are not included in the definition of the Trans... ... ...

Service Tax -(1) Difference between Notifications and Boards Circular (2) Tax liability of secondary services which are used by the primary service provider for the export of service (3) Refund... ... ...

Adjustment of brought forward losses before allowing deduction u/s 10A - Held that:- This Tribunal is of the considered opinion that in the absence of adjustment of brought forward losses while computing deduction u/s 10A in the draft assessment order forwarded to the assessee and in the direction of the DRP, the Assessing Officer cannot make such adjustment in the final assessment order which was passed consequent to the direction of the DRP. Under sec. 144C(13) of the Act, the Assessing Office... ... ...

Commercial coaching and training centre - vocational coaching services - Exemption Notification No. 24/2004-ST dated 30/06/2004 - Held that:- Technology based training for employment skill development, the training courses for medical transcriptionist, insurance agents etc. are vocational course which enable the persons receiving such training to get direct employment or get self-employed. Therefore these training courses though imparted with the aid to computers cannot be treated as computer tr... ... ...

Refund - Rule 5 of Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 - whether the services in respect of which the appellant has paid service tax qualified as input services for providing output services of the appellants which were exported during the material period - The credit is admissible subject to verification of the factual submissions - The appeals are disposed of by way of remand to the original authority... ... ...

ITAT Mumbai held that several companies including Infosys Ltd, Persistent Systems Ltd, Tata Elexi Ltd, and Bodhtree Consulting Ltd should be excluded from transfer pricing benchmarking for software development services due to functional incomparability or lack of segmental data. The tribunal allowed Section 10A deductions for multiple units including UB Plaza and Titanium STPI units, following coordinate bench decisions. The depreciation on goodwill claim was remanded to AO for fresh consideration. Communication and travel expenses exclusion from turnover computation was upheld following SC precedent in HCL Technologies. Software disallowance under Section 40(a)(ia) deletion was sustained following Karnataka HC decision in Tally Solutions.

Disallowances made on account of quality rejects, breakage leakage etc, expired inventory, stock of Genosys, stock difference in error - HELD THAT:- Breakage, Leakage etc - Assessee in order to establish breakage leakage etc had filed a chart showing the ratio of the law is on such breakage to sales during the relevant years which is negligible as compared to huge turnover of assessee. We therefore direct assessee to file identical details for year under consideration to establish the claim in v... ... ...