TMI Blog2019 (1) TMI 1173X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ing documents within a period of six weeks from today and if the appellant desires a personal hearing, the same may be given - a cost of ₹ 50,000/- is imposed on the appellant, which the appellant shall deposit within a period of one month from today - appeal allowed by way of remand. - Service Tax Appeal No. 52642 of 2015 - Final Order No. 50052/2019 - Dated:- 3-1-2019 - Shri Justice Dilip Gupta, President And Shri C.L. Mahar, Member (Technical) Shri Rajesh Kumar Tiara, Advocate for the appellant. Shri G.R. Singh, Authorized Representative (DR) for the Respondent. ORDER Per. Justice Dilip Gupta: - This appeal seeks to assail the order dated 9 April, 2015 passed by the Commissioner, Central Excise, Jaipur in response to the declaration of tax dues made by the appellant under the Service Tax Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme, 2013 [hereinafter referred to as 2013 Scheme] which came into effect from 10 May, 2013. 2. Under Section 106 any person can declare his tax dues in respect of which no notice or order of determination under Section 72 or Section 73 or Section 73A had been issued or made before the 1st day of March, 2013. Th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e reasons discussed above. (ii) Service tax of ₹ 37,03,793/- should not be recovered from them alongwith interest under Section 73 and Section 75 of the Finance Act, 1994 respectively readwith Section 111 of the Finance Act, 2013 and Service tax of ₹ 1,85,220/- already deposited by them should not be appropriated into the government account. (iii) Penalty should not be imposed upon them for suppression of facts as per para 5 above, under Section 77 and 78 of the Finance Act, 1994 for contravening the provisions of Section 67, 68, 69 70 of the Finance Act, 1994 readwith Rule 4, 6 7 of the Service Tax Rules, 1994 respectively . 6. The appellant was also directed to produce at the time of showing cause all the evidence upon what it intended to rely upon and also state whether it wished to be heard in person before the case was adjudicated. 7. The reasons for issuing the show cause notice were contained in paragraphs 3 and 5 of the show cause notice and the same are reproduced :- 3. Whereas, the Superintendent, Service Tax Range II, Group S to Z, Jaipur vide letter C. No. V (ST)R-II/VCES/ 12/2013/4256 dated 05/07/2013 had requested the assessee to subm ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... - - . 5. Whereas, from the above, it appears that the assessee was required to declare their true tax dues, for the period from October, 2007 to December, 2012, but not paid as on the 1st day of March, 2013, which comes to ₹ 37,03,793/- as per Annexure-A to this show cause notice. However, the assessee had declared only a part of tax dues amounting to ₹ 3,67,358/- only for the period from April, 2010 to December, 2012 by contravening the provisions of Section 105 (1) (e) of the Service Tax Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme, 2013 of the Finance Act, 2013 (17 of 2013). The assessee was registered with the department on 15/04/2010, whereas, they were providing the taxable services from 2009-2010 and had also not filed the periodical ST-3 returns with the department for the period from 2009-2010 to December 2012. The government had given an opportunity to the defaulters of service tax to come in streamline of service tax law by declaring and depositing their tax dues without interest and penalty by introducing the one time Service Tax Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme, 2013 of the Finance Act, 2013. However, the assessee had failed to get the benefit of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , service charges etc. In case the air travel agents have recovered service charges from the customers for booking of tickets and choose to pay service tax on commission the service tax is payable on the amount of service charges also. In case he pays the service tax by opting for provisions under Rule 6 (7), service tax is not payable on such service charges recovered by him. Further the other charges include voiding charges, ticket reconfirmation charges, visa service charges, no show charges etc. The above is an illustrative list. From the above it is clear that service tax is not payable on commission, voiding/cancellation charges, service charges, mark-up on ticket, handing charges, visa service, documentation charges, discount received as mentioned in Annexure A of the said show cause notice for all the years. The Assessee, therefore, pleaded that there was no reason why the VCES-1 declaration filed under sub-section (1) of Section 107 of the Finance Act, 2013 should be rejected more particularly when the assessee had not given false or substantially false declaration under Section 111 of the Finance Act, 2013 . 9. The Commissioner, however, came to hold that the d ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... submission of the learned Counsel for the appellant is that no service tax was liable to be paid for financial year 2009-2010 and for this reason the tax for this financial year was not mentioned in the declaration and that it was not the liability of the appellant to pay service tax on the additional amount mentioned in Annexure A to the show cause notice. It needs to be noted that Annexure A to the show cause notice contains a note that service tax had been calculated on the entire ticket value to safeguard Government revenue instead of on basic fare on domestic and international ticket bookings as no separate figures of basic fare in domestic and international booking were available on the record. The appellant had calculated the tax on the basic fare, whereas the show cause notice seeks to charge tax on the entire ticket value. 14. The appellant is, therefore, permitted to file an additional reply to the show cause notice with supporting documents within a period of six weeks from today and if the appellant desires a personal hearing, the same may be given. 15. However, as the appellant have failed to file a proper reply to the show cause notice and even failed to appear ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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