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2015 (12) TMI 1403 - AT - Service TaxDemand of service tax - franchise service - presumption and arbitrary quantum while doing best judgement assessment - Suppression of facts - invocation extended period of limitation - Held that:- Adjudicating authority has observed that the appellant “deliberately tried to suppress the facts from the Department” and then adds that “M/s. Carlsberg India Pvt. Ltd. wilfully suppressed all the material facts regarding nature of service provided by them in respect of “Intellectual Property Services other than Copyright” and the gross amount received by them during the aforesaid period as royalty / franchisee service and at no stage did they enquire about taxability of their services”. It is obvious that the paragraph has been written without application of mind because in the present case no amount was received by the appellant “as royalty/franchise service”; indeed the appellant paid the amount to foreign based company. The appellant did not provide the alleged services, but was the recipient of the alleged services. In the Show Cause Notice dated 18.10.2012, the figures for 2011-12 have been taken to be 10 times those for 2010-11 under the “best judgment assessment” without any basis / reason which almost smacks of outright mala fide and the adjudicating authority blindly adopted those figures under “best judgment assessment” without even a whisper as to how such a quantum jump (tenfold) in the assessable value was justifiable as 'best judgement assessment' under Section 72 ibid Appellant made elaborate arguments in its written submissions that the service received by it did not satisfy the definition of franchise service under Section 65 (105) (zze) ibid, but the adjudicating authority summarily states (without any analysis) that its contentions do not hold ground. Indeed, as brought out hereinabove, perusal of paragraphs 36 to 41 of the impugned order quoted above makes it so amply clear that the order fatally suffers from lack of analysis/discussion regarding the contentions and arguments of the appellant and makes a mockery of the quasi-judicial process in-as-much-as it is not merely non-speaking, but also absurd in parts. In the absence of analysis/reasoning with reference to the contentions of the appellant, the conclusions drawn in the impugned order are rendered lifeless - we set aside the impugned order and remand the case to the adjudicating authority for de novo adjudication after giving the appellant an opportunity of being heard. - Decided in favour of assessee.
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