TMI Blog2022 (10) TMI 196X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e already rendered a finding that the nature of the service has not been identified. In the absence of such identification, the inclusion thereof in a composite service and, the applicability of the judicial decisions led by either side or the resort to section 65A of Finance Act, 1994 is not only academic but also a non-starter. The adjudicating authority has not paid careful attention to the two relevant definitions in section 65(105)(w) and section 65(94) of Finance Act, 1994; both , with reference to security, are qualified by the expression in any manner which, by such concatenated existence and circular consequence, has to be read in the restricted context of that which in common parlance is associated with security agency - Taki ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... pplied the law as settled but that the dictates of common sense have been ignored in the eagerness to extract tax at any cost. 2. According to Learned Counsel appearing for appellant, the impugned order has taxed their activity of sub-contracting the work of construction of compound wall/fencing as well as development and maintenance of green belt around water tank mains and adjoining reservoir and pumping station lands as security agents services rendered by them merely owing to the circulation of tender intimation combining it with pipeline surveillance and protection arrangements that was, in any case, not awarded to them but to another. The genesis of the dispute, according to him, was the intent of Municipal Corporation of G ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e unless by some quirk of taxable event the statute construes it so. From a tax point of view, both are independently leviable to the impost unless by some quirk of deeming fiction the statute renders them inseparable. From the remuneration perspective, the consideration for both activities, being billed separately, should be assessed severally unless by a quirk of valuation mechanism the statute specifies otherwise. It is, therefore, appropriate to examine the impugned order for the legal, even if not logical, base for this unique approach to the scope of security agency service defined in section 65(94) of Finance Act, 1994. 4. The taxable service (w) any service provided or to be provided to any person, by security agenc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he appellant with the duty liability. At the first level is the supposition that any manner is wide enough to stretch without any stress to the law. It further supposes that the syntactical and grammatical dispersion in the cover page of the bid document is flawless in depicting the intent of the contracting parties. Thereafter, it supposes that the appellant is the tenderer providing Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) with security agency services to which the differential value was to be added. The final supposition is that law does not guard against encroachments with prevention in future hinged upon physical impediments stipulated in the tender. 7. In doing so, the adjudicating authority has assumed that there is no l ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 2017-TIOL-896-CESTAT-DEL], in National Construction Company v. Commissioner of Central Excise, Jaipur [2014-TIOL-387-CESTAT-DEL], in Ace Construction Mines and Mineral Coop Society v. Commissioner of Central Excise, Jaipur-II [2019 (9) GSTL 107 (Tri-Del)] affirmed by the Hon ble Supreme Court, in Tuli Construction Company v. Commissioner of Central Excise, Customs Service Tax, Bhubaneshwar-II [2019 (25) GSTL 43 (Tri-Kolkata] and in Webel Technology Ltd v. Commissioner of Service Tax, Kolkata [2018 (19) GSTL 467 (Cal)] in support of the argument that an indivisible contract cannot be altered merely by separate charges therein. In this context, circular no. 334/1/2008-TRU dated 29th February 2008 of Central Board of Excise Customs (CBEC) ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... settling service tax law. Without such fetter, the scope of security agency would have to be interpreted to extend to civil construction of any kind intended to protect bringing every civil contractor within the ambit of section 65(94) of Finance Act, 1994. Taking that definition into section 65(105)(w) of Finance Act, 1994 would lead to the outcome of every compound wall/fence put up by any person to be that of security agency ; consequently and by extension, every civil project would be activity of security agency , thereby rendering construction service or work contract service in section 65 of Finance Act, 1994 to be superfluous. Fencing/compound wall are, after all, intended as safeguard against encroachment by neighbour, taken ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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