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2016 (12) TMI 440 - AT - Service TaxBusiness auxiliary service - Appellant is a provider of service under the category of Courier Service falling under Section 65(33) of the Act. Service tax demanded in respect of co-loader services provided by the appellant to other courier service companies for delivery of domestic courier packets as well as imported courier packets - packets booked for delivery to other countries on the ground that the activity did not belong to export of service since no foreign exchange was realised for these transactions by the appellant - Held that: - The provision of courier service involves collecting the goods from the person booking the consignment, transporting the same to the destination and ultimate delivery by hand to the recipient - The consideration for the service also will be collected by the agency. In the present case, where the appellant has worked as co-loader their role is limited to delivery of the packets to the ultimate customer. For this activity, they have received consideration from the first courier agency. From the nature of the activity undertaken by the appellant, it cannot be said that they have carried out courier service on behalf of another - The transaction between the appellant and the other courier agency is on principal to principal basis. It cannot be said that the service has been rendered on behalf of the courier agency. Consequently, activity cannot be covered under the definition of BAS and hence this part of the demand cannot be sustained. The appellant has received certain amounts from abroad for delivery of incoming courier packets. They have also received some amounts for the courier consignments exported on collect basis. The claim of the appellant is that this amounts to export of service and hence no service tax is leviable. The demand for service tax has been made for the reason that the payment has not been received in convertible foreign exchange - the amount has been received by the appellant by way of adjustment out of the amounts - Held that: - The Notification No.21/2003-ST, dated 20.10.2003 exempts from payment of service tax, amounts received in convertible foreign exchange. We know that but for the amount due to be paid by the appellant to foreign courier companies, they would have received the considerations in foreign exchange for the service rendered by them to foreign courier companies for delivery in India. It cannot be said that on account of the adjustment, the consideration has not been received in foreign exchange. We are of the view that the condition of Notification No.21/2003-ST is to be considered as satisfied in the present case. Consequently this part of the service tax demand also merits to be set aside. Demand set aside - appeal allowed - decided in favor of appellant-assessee.
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