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2014 (12) TMI 42 - AT - Service TaxClassification of service - business auxiliary service or manpower supply service - harvesting and transportation of sugarcane from the farmers’ fields to the sugar factory - Held that:- Tenor of the agreement is for the specific tasks of “harvesting of sugarcane and transportation of the same from the farmers’ fields to the sugar factory”. The agreement is not for supply of any manpower to the sugar factory. The consideration paid also has no nexus to the manpower employed. - As per Section 65(68) of Finance Act, 1994 ‘ “manpower recruitment or supply agency” means any person engaged in providing any service, directly or indirectly, in any manner for recruitment or supply of manpower, temporarily or otherwise to any other person’ and the taxable service is defined under Section 65(105)(k) as “service rendered to any person by a manpower recruitment or supply agency in relation to the recruitment or supply of manpower, temporarily or otherwise, in any manner”. The appellants are not manpower recruitment agencies as they do not recruit any persons; they also do not supply manpower to the sugar factory. What they have undertaken is harvesting of sugarcane and transportation of the same to the sugar factory. To undertake this work, they have engaged labour/transport contractors who have undertaken the work of harvesting of sugarcane and transportation of the same. In any service activity, manpower is required. That does not make the service as supply of manpower. From the statutory definitions and the contracts entered into by the appellants, it is clear that there is no element of manpower supply or recruitment by the appellants to the sugar factory and therefore, the services rendered by the appellants cannot be classified under manpower recruitment or supply agency services, by any stretch of imagination. It is also worth noting that the appellants do not undertake this work for anybody else except for the sugar factory concerned. In other words, they do not supply manpower to any customer who approaches them. Therefore, the impugned demands by classifying the activity under “manpower supply service” are not sustainable in law. Following the decisions of this Tribunal in the cases of Amrit Sanjivni Sugarcane Transport Co. Pvt. Ltd. [2013 (8) TMI 58 - CESTAT MUMBAI], Samarth Sevabhavi Trust [2013 (8) TMI 218 - CESTAT MUMBAI] and Bhogavati Janseva Trust & Others (2014 (9) TMI 482 - CESTAT MUMBAI) - Decided in favour of assessee.
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