TMI Blog2018 (3) TMI 1430X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to pay service tax being provider of service in India in terms of Rule 9 of the Place of Provision of Service Rules, 2012. Refund allowed - appeal allowed - decided in favor of appellant. - ST/60584/2016 - A/60151/2018 - Dated:- 27-2-2018 - Mr. Ashok Jindal, Member (Judicial) And Mr. Devender Singh, Member (Technical) Present for the Appellant: Ms. Reena Khair, Advocate Present for the Respondent: Shri Atul Handa, AR ORDER Per: Ashok Jindal The appeal is in appeal against the impugned order wherein the refund claim for the period April 2015 to September, 2015 filed under Rule 5 of Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 read with Notification No.27/2012 dated 18.06.2012 has been rejected. 2. The brief facts of the case are that the appellant is registered with the Service Tax Department under the category of Business Auxiliary Services. The appellant filed refund claim for the above mentioned period under Rule 5 of Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 read with Notification No.27/2012 dated 18.062012 for unutilized Cenvat credit availed on input services used for providing taxable services under the category of Business Auxiliary Services in respect of Export of Service ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... etween the appellant and the Evalueserve Ltd., Bermuda which are reproduced here under: 1.A The Company shall provide the services to the customers of the client in accordance with the requirement as specified by the Client. Client passes the customer requirements and details of the deliverables to the Company. The Company shall directly interact with the customers of the Client, as and when required and hence would provide the Services to such customers on behalf of Client in close coordination with the Client's team. Client plays a pivotal role in building up the client base. Client's team complements the engagement team of the Company. 1.B The Company shall, on the basis of its research, prepare a report in the format as specified by the Client which has been pre-agreed upon by it with the customers of the Client. The Client would closely supervise the assignments. The Company shall forward such reports directly to the customers of the Client, though internet post a detailed quality assurance of the final deliverable by the Client. The obligations of the Company would come to an end once it forwards the reports to the official e-mail ID of the customers of the C ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a. In fact, the appellant has provided the services to customers of their Client and having no direct nexus with the customers of their client has been provided by the appellant to their client and nowhere has facilitated or arranged for the services provided to their client by third party. Furthermore, the appellant has themselves provided the services to their client as the main service provider on principal to principal basis, therefore, the activity undertaken by the appellant do not qualify intermediary as defined in Rule 2(f) of Place of Provision of Services Rules, 2012. Similar view was taken by the Advance Rulings Authority of India in the case of Universal Services India Pvt. Ltd (supra) and Godaddy India Web Services Pvt. Ltd. (supra), wherein the Advance Rulings Authority of India has observed as under: 10. The definition of intermediary as envisaged under Rule 2(f) of POPS does not include a person who provides the main service on his own account. In the present case, applicant is providing main service, i.e., business support services to WWD US and on his own account. Therefore, applicant is not an intermediary and the service provided by him is not i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... been controverted by the Revenue. We agree with the submissions of the applicant that proposed services are a bundle of services, bundled in normal course of business and not intermediary service. 13. In view of above, we rule as under; In the facts and circumstances, the various support services proposed to be provided by the applicant to GoDaddy US are a bundle of Services being naturally bundled in the ordinary course of business and accordingly is a single service, being business support service, in terms of Section 66F of the Finance Act? Question 2: If the answer to Question 1 is positive, whether, in the facts and circumstances of the case, the place of provision of business support service by the applicant, is outside India in terms of Rule 3 of the Place of Provision of Service Rules, 2012 (herein after referred to as POPS ). If the services provided by the applicant are not considered as naturally bundled then in the facts and circumstances enumerated in Annexure I, which of the individual service shall qualify for classification under Rule 3 of the POPS as service provided by a service provider located in India to a service recipient located ou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... provided these services on their own account, will not be categorized as intermediaries . Reliance can also be placed on the ruling of Authority for Advance Ruling (Central Excise, Customs Service Tax), New Delhi on the application of M/s. GoDaddy India Web Services Pvt. Ltd., vide Ruling No.AAR/ST/08/2016 in Application No.AAR/44/ST/15/2014 dated 04 th March, 2016. The ruling of the said application is explained in detail herein below: ......... Section 66F of the Finance Act, 1994, read with rules 2(f), 3 and 9 of the Place of Provision of Service Rules, 2012 and Rule 6A of the Service Tax Rules, 1994 Service - Bundled Services - GoDaddy US, was a domain name register and web hosting service provider Assessee was proposing to provide: (a) Marketing and Promotion services, (b) Supervision of quality of third party customer care center services and (c) Payment processing services to GoDaddy US - Assessee sought ruling that all three services were a single service, viz. Business support service under Section 66F(3) and its Place of Provision (POP) was outside India as per Rule 3. In view of the above, I find that on perusal of the service agreement entered between M/s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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