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2013 (12) TMI 1120 - CESTAT MUMBAIWaiver of Penalty u/s 80 as imposed u/s 76 & 78 - Demand of service tax - Construction of residential complexes - Adjudicating authority reduced penalty u/s 78 and set aside penalty u/s 76 - Held that:- assessee is a small scale service provider and it is obvious from the records that he did not get registered and discharge Service tax liability as he was not aware of the provisions of law. As soon as the omission on his part was brought to his notice, he discharged the Service tax liability. For the year 2007-08 he discharged the duty liability in March, 2009 and for the period 2008-09 he discharged the liability in August, 2009 in respect of demand. He also discharged liability of interest in March 2009 itself - Therefore, it was a fit case for waiver of penalty under Section 80 of the said Finance Act which the adjudicating authority failed to do by taking into consideration the facts of the case which the appellate authority has done. He reduced the amount of penalty to the extent to Service tax paid by the respondent assessee. At least the appellate authority has exercised the discretion to some extent even though he could have waived the entire penalty under Section 80 of the Finance Act, 1994 which provides for complete waiver of penalty when there was a reasonable cause for failure on assessee’s part in non payment of Service Tax - Decided against Revenue.
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