2012 (8) TMI 752

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..... Soni for the Respondent. ORDER Mathew John, Technical Member - The Appellants are engaged in the manufacture of VP sugar and molasses. For their manufacturing activity, they collected sugarcane from farmers at various collection centres. They engaged individual farmers for transportation of sugarcane from collection centres to the factory and paid charges for such transportation. The Appellant .....

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..... g with interest and penalties. Aggrieved by the adjudication orders, the Appellants had filed appeal with the Commissioner (Appeals) who waived penalties imposed under Section 78 but confirmed penalty under Section 77 and no relief has been given in the matter of service tax to be paid. Aggrieved by the orders of the Commissioner (Appeals), the Appellants have filed the present appeal along with a .....

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..... ansport agency, in relation to transport of goods by road in a goods carriage." 3. He submits that since the sugarcane which was collected at the collection centres was already property of the Appellant. There was no need for any consignment note for despatching the same using the services of truck owners who were mostly individual firms. Therefore he submits that there is no merits in the case m .....

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..... season. So if at all farmers are owning the trucks it is because they are undertaking goods transport operation as another profession. Therefore, the truck owners who transported sugarcane has to be at par with any other truck owners and the issue decided accordingly. 5. We have considered arguments on both sides. What we find is that the definition of "Goods Transport Agency" under Section 65(5 .....

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..... service tax on individual truck owners except in cases where the cargo for such trucks are booked by "Goods Transport Agency" which is in the business of booking cargo and issuing the consignment note in the normal course of their business. Therefore, at this prima facie stage we consider it proper to waive pre-deposit of dues arising from the impugned orders for admission of appeal. We order acco .....

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