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2013 (2) TMI 156 - HC - Service TaxCourier Agencies Services – whether the service provided by couriers/angadias for delivery of cash received at one place and handed over at another place is a taxable service under “courier agency” - Assessees are members of All India Angadia Association and are engaged in providing services for transport of valuable documents like diamond packets and other articles of gold and silver from various branches to their Head Office and from the Head Office to branches, accordingly inter branch transports are effected – Held that:- Section 66, which is a charging Section, provides that a tax shall be levied at the rate of twelve per cent of the value of taxable services referred to in Section 65. Section 65 provides that “taxable service” means any service provided or to be provided to any person, by a courier agency in relation to door-to-door transportation of time sensitive documents, goods or articles - Thus, for the purpose of being chargeable to Service tax under Section 66 of the Act, taxable services of the nature provided under Section 65 would be required to be provided by such person. – Taxable services should be provided to any person by a courier agency in relation to door-to-door transportation of time sensitive documents, goods or articles. On a conjoint reading of the definition of “courier agency” as defined under Section 65, it is apparent that it is only if a courier agency provides services in relation to door-to-door transportation of time-sensitive documents, goods or articles that the taxable event would take place – In the present case, the service receiver hands over cash in Indian currency at a recipient branch, which transfers instructions to the delivery branch, where payment is made from the corpus available at the delivery branch. Thus, there is no movement of the cash from the recipient branch to the delivery branch. There is no transportation of such cash as contemplated under Section 65 of the Act. In the aforesaid premises, the transfer of cash by the assessees in the manner aforesaid, does not fall within the ambit of “courier agency”. As held by the Supreme Court in Murarilal Mahabir Prasad v. B.R. Vad (supra)[1975 (9) TMI 155 - SUPREME COURT OF INDIA], there is no equity about a tax in the sense that a provision by which a tax is imposed has to be construed strictly, regardless of the hardship that such a construction may cause either to the treasury or to the taxpayer. A charging section has to be construed strictly. If a person has not been brought within the ambit of the charging section by clear words, he cannot be taxed at all – In the present case, insofar as the facility for transfer of money as provided by the assessees is concerned, the same has not been brought within the ambit of charging section by clear words and as such, the assessees cannot be taxed in respect of the same – Tender of Indian currencies and its transmission and compensatory payment would not be covered by the levy of Service tax under heading “courier agency” – Against the revenue.
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