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2022 (12) TMI 600 - AT - Service TaxDemand of services on ‘surrender charge’ retained by the appellant upon withdrawal of ‘insured’ from ‘unit linked insurance policies (ULIP)’ - voluntary withdrawal from coverage under ‘unit linked insurance policy (ULIP)’ - HELD THAT:- It is, unabashedly, about treating the return of the consideration, once already considered for taxability, upon discontinuation of contract of service even though such retention does not alter either that reality or that no additional consideration has passed from recipient to appellant while the provision of service subsisted. The ‘premium’ paid in the past by the recipient was in pursuance of contract providing for amortized payments towards the bundled service – each of which was assessed to tax on receipt by the appellant – over the contract period and obliging of repayment of the amounts, not attributable to service already rendered by coverage and investment, upon termination of contract of service may be treated as consideration only in a bizarre, and perverse, context that is out of touch with the reality of transactions in the insurance sector. This was the finding in re Bharti- AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd [2021 (7) TMI 735 - CESTAT MUMBAI] which, de hors the decisions in earlier rulings, led to the outcome therein. The taint, if any, that the other decisions may have vis-à-vis the recall of the decision in re Reliance Life Insurance Company Ltd [2018 (4) TMI 1407 - CESTAT MUMBAI] has no bearing on the binding precedent of this decision placed before us on behalf of the appellant. The ‘surrender value’ so retained had already been subjected to tax as ‘premium’ for rendering of taxable service and not liable to be taxed again for that very reason upon ceasing to be provision service
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