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2014 (12) TMI 170 - CESTAT NEW DELHIWaiver of pre deposit - multi-level marketing company - Service of providing various marketing materials for the purpose of marketing of their (the appellant's) products - Classification of service - Penalty u/s 76 & 77 - Held that:- It is seen that the material provided to the distributors is clearly meant for the purpose of marketing of the appellants products and a perusal of the definition of Support Services of Business or Commerce prima facie makes it evident that this would get covered under the scope of the said definition, at least under that limb of the inclusive part which says operational assistance for marketing’. It is pertinent to mention that the main part of the definition of Support Services of Business or Commerce is arguably too broad to be a valid taxable expression and therefore its inclusive part has to be fallen upon to delineate the scope of the said definition and that is what has been done presently. - Prim facie case is against the assessee. Allowing companies to address in conferences - Business Support service - Held that:- The service tax was demanded on the ground that the Support Services of Business or Commerce was rendered to the insurance-related companies by providing them platform of meetings of the distributors/leaders in order to address the distributors/leaders for furtherance of their insurance business. Prima facie, it is not at once very clear as to under which the limb of the inclusive part of the aforesaid definition this activity would fall. Thus prima facie with regard to this component of demand the appellants have a fairly reasonable case for waiver of pre-deposit. Activity of Mailing List Compilation - Held that:- the appellants’ contention that they had not compiled any data for the insurance related companies falls totally flat face first. Having thus shown that the data was actually compiled for their clients, it may not be necessary to state that a careful reading of the definition of ‘mailing list compilation and mailing’ reveals that the words ‘for or on behalf of the client’ are applicable only to clause (ii) of the definition and not to clause (i) because clause (ii) is separated from clause (i) by a semi colon and the word ‘or’. Separation by semi colon makes clause (i) and (i) self-contained. Thus, the contention of the appellants that the compilation has to be for or on behalf of the client does not represent the correct reading/appreciation of the statutory definition. Thus, prima facie, the department has a strong case with regard to this component of demand. A deposit of 50% of the demand components mentioned at Sr. No. 1 and 3 of the table above would meet the requirement of Section 35F of the Central Excise Act, 1944 read with Section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994 - Partial stay granted.
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