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2021 (9) TMI 510 - AT - Service TaxRefund of Service Tax - electrical works contract - relevant date for determining limitation under section 11B of Central Excise Act, 1944 - N/N. 25/2012-ST dated 20th June 2012 - HELD THAT:- The restoration, with special enablement of refund, acknowledges the historical existence, and necessity, of exemption of the specified activities from tax that stretch back in time and the claim of the appellant is predicated upon availment of the exemption at the time of contracting with the recipients; and even earlier. There is nothing on record to establish that the denial of refund had been followed up with instituting of proceedings for recovery of tax that had not been paid. The ineligibility of the activity of the appellant for exemption after 1st March 2015, as held by the lower authorities, implied evasion of tax for the period before that. This inconsistency of approach to tax liability would make it appear that that ineligibility for exemption has been contrived solely for denial of refund. The appellant was engaged in ‘erection, installation, testing and commissioning’ of electrical works and it belies logic to expect electrical works to generally exist independent of civil structure as well as in disregarding the critical indispensability of electrical installation in civil structures. To segregate one component out of the entirety of civil structure does not appear to be the intendment of law. The retrospective effect of the exemption is applicable to the electrical works executed, and the maintenance undertaken, by the appellant for Goa State Industrial Development Corporation (GSIDC) and Goa Medical College (GMC) - Appeal allowed.
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