2009 (8) TMI 50 - BOMBAY HIGH COURT

Whether the Appellants, who are manufacturers of non-alcoholic beverage bases (concentrates) are eligible to avail credit of the service-tax paid on advertising services, sales promotion, market research and the like availed by them and utilize such credit towards payment of excise duty on the concentrate - As now judicially recognized, Service tax is VAT which in turn is destination based consumption tax in a sense that it is on commercial activities and is not a charge on the business but on the consumer. – Further, credit is availed on the tax paid on the input service, which is advertisement and not on the contents of the advertisement. Thus it is not necessary that the contents of the advertisement must be that of the final product manufactured by the person advertising – Held that manufacturer can avail of the credit of the services tax paid by him for payment of CENVAT duty