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2024 (3) TMI 234

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..... ed the service along with materials. Therefore, the said service merits classification under the category of works contract service , which came into the Service Tax net with effect from 01.06.2007. Admittedly, the demand has not been raised against the appellant under works contract service. The Hon ble Apex Court in the case of COMMISSIONER, CENTRAL EXCISE CUSTOMS VERSUS M/S LARSEN TOUBRO LTD. AND OTHERS [ 2015 (8) TMI 749 - SUPREME COURT ] wherein the Hon ble Apex Court observed Works contract were not chargeable to service tax prior to 1.6.2007. The merit classification of the services rendered by the appellant is under works contract service. As no demand has been raised under the category of works contract service , therefore, no dema .....

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..... e appellant had provided the service of commercial or industrial construction service to the service recipient and therefore, they are liable to pay Service Tax in terms of Section 65(25b) of the Finance Act, 1994. 3. In view of these facts, a Show Cause Notice dated 26.04.2011 was issued to the appellant by invoking the extended period of limitation. The appellant contested the matter that the merit classification of the service is works contract service , but the adjudicating authority confirmed the demand under the category of commercial or industrial construction service. Aggrieved from the said order, the appellant is before us. 4. None appeared on behalf of the appellant nor has any request for adjournment been received from them. On .....

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..... the learned Judges of the Court below to be. The several forms which such kinds of contracts can assume are set out in Hudson on Building Contracts, at p. 165. It is possible that the parties might enter into distinct and separate contracts, one for the transfer of materials for money consideration, and the other for payment of remuneration for services and for work done. In such a case, there are really two agreements, though there is a single instrument embodying them, and the power of the State to separate the agreement to sell, from the agreement to do work and render service and to impose a tax thereon cannot be questioned, and will stand untouched by the present judgment. (at page 427) 18. Similarly, in Kone Elevator India (P) Ltd. v .....

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..... e subterfuge. We are inclined to think so as it would be frustrating the constitutional provision and, accordingly, we unhesitatingly repel the same. (at para 60) 19. In Larsen Toubro Ltd. v. State of Karnataka, (2014) 1 SCC 708 = 2014 (34) S.T.R. 481 (S.C.) = 2014 (303) E.L.T. 3 (S.C.), this Court stated :- In our opinion, the term works contract in Article 366(29-A)(b) is amply wide and cannot be confined to a particular understanding of the term or to a particular form. The term encompasses a wide range and many varieties of contract. Parliament had such wide meaning of works contract in its view at the time of the Forty-sixth Amendment. The object of insertion of clause (29-A) in Article 366 was to enlarge the scope of the expression ta .....

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..... he assessees argument that there is no charge to tax of works contracts in the Finance Act, 1994 is correct in view of what has been stated above. 24. A close look at the Finance Act, 1994 would show that the five taxable services referred to in the charging Section 65(105) would refer only to service contracts simpliciter and not to composite works contracts. This is clear from the very language of Section 65(105) which defines taxable service as any service provided . All the services referred to in the said sub-clauses are service contracts simpliciter without any other element in them, such as for example, a service contract which is a commissioning and installation, or erection, commissioning and installation contract. Further, under S .....

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