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2011 (1) TMI 642 - AT - Service TaxBusiness Auxiliary Service versus Business Support Service - Classification - Electricity Call Centre, Customer Service Centre, Computerized Collection Centre, Energy Audit, Consumer Indexing, Watch & Ward Route Riders etc., - Call Centre Services were exempted vide Notification No. 8/2003-ST as amended and were exempt till 1-3-2006 and liable to Service Tax thereafter - There are several agreements executed by the appellant with different electricity companies of Andhra Pradesh and electricity departments/companies of Orissa - it can be seen that the nature of work performed by the so called electricity call centres, can be said to be registration of complaint on behalf of the electricity board and monitoring of the same till the complaints are resolved - Once the appellants deal with the customer, he is acting on behalf of the electricity company/department and therefore classification of services provided by the appellant is appropriately to be classified under Business Auxiliary Service and not under SSBC Regarding software maintenance - It is the submission of the appellant that maintenance and repair includes development of software and in fact development of software is outside the preview of service tax since the Information Technology service became liable to Service Tax on the development of software only with effect from 16-5-2008 - In the absence of the word 'development' and presence of word 'maintenance' in the agreement, and also in view of the failure of the appellant to submit bifurcation, we have to take a view that the agreement covers maintenance only - suppression of facts could not have been invoked in this case, In view of the above decision, - maintenance of software became taxable only from 1-6-2007. Regarding SSDC - IWhen the meter reading is not done by the implementing agency, as can be seen from the contract with the respective Assistant Accounts Officers or EROs are required to provide meter reading books on the prescribed dates and the appellant is required to enter the data of meter readings, verify the same, incorporate in the computer master and process the bills - Held that: this activity is correctly classifiable under SSBC as claimed by the learned Advocate Regarding Energy Audit - In this case, by doing energy audit, the appellant is assisting in finding out whether all the electricity received has been sold and if not, where the problem lies. This is nothing but management of distribution and logistics of electricity supplies - Held that: this is clearly covered under SSBC and not under Business Auxiliary Service Regarding time limitation - The certificate of registration was granted much later, but subsequently amendment was issued to say that it was valid from the date of application. After the application was received from the appellant, investigation was taken up and show-cause notice was issued on 5-6-2007 - It is a statutory obligation on the part of every service provider to see whether the service rendered by him is liable to Service Tax and make declaration to the department - It has to be noted that even on 3-3-2006, when the application was made, the appellant had not indicated all activities undertaken by them - Appeal is partly allowed
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