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2017 (10) TMI 287 - CESTAT CHENNAIPenalty u/s 76 - non-payment of service tax - section 73 (3) of the Act - Held that: - The appellant in the present case was duly aware of its legal obligations as they were registered with the serviced tax department and were following due procedure prior to the period in question. The appellant's stand that service tax was not being paid on account of financial crunch can not be appreciated inasmuch as they were collecting service tax from their customers and instead of depositing the same it was being pocketed. Even if it is assumed that tax was not being deposited on account of financial difficulties, nothing stopped the appellant to file the statutory returns disclosing their liability to pay service tax, in which case, it would have been a it cannot be a case of delayed payment and not of non-payment. The fact of non-disclosure and non-filing of returns leads to the inevitable conclusion that the appellant was doing so with malafide intention, in which case, there is clear mandate of law contained in the provisions of section 76, for imposition of penalties - penalty upheld - appeal dismissed - decided against appellant.
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