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2015 (8) TMI 638 - AT - Service TaxClassification of service - Business Auxiliary service or Business Support service - whether the expenses charged directly from customers such as Bill of Lading (B/L) reissue charges, switch B/L charges, B/L surrender charges, advance cargo declaration charges, administration charges on stamp duty, amendment charges, check dishonour charges, destination documents fees, late B/L charges are leviable to service tax under the Business Auxiliary Services - Held that:- The appellant provides end-to-end solutions to the customers and therefore, all charges including those directly paid by customers to the appellant are leviable to service tax. We cannot agree with this contention. The appellant is paying service tax under Steamer Agent services on all activities including some documentation charges and all such charges are credited to the account of the Principal as per the Agency Agreement. The remaining charges i.e. those on which service tax demand has been raised relate to activities performed by the appellant independently for their customers. The appellant did not remit these charges to the Principal. We find nothing in the Agreement which states that the appellant cannot provide such service and cannot receive charges from the customers for such activities. Therefore, we conclude that these activities constitute service provided directly to the customer and do not constitute services provided on behalf of the Principal. Hence, the services would not fall under the category of BAS during the period of dispute - there was bonafide confusion in the mind of assesses about taxability of documentation services during the period prior to 16.6.2005. Having set aside the demand of tax, the penalties are also set aside as the duty was paid for period after 16.6.2005, that is, before the issue of show cause notice - Decided in favour of assessee.
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