Composition Scheme for Payment of Service Tax

2015-VIL-489-CESTAT-BLR-ST
Service Tax – Works Contract (Composition Scheme for Payment of Service Tax) Rules, 2007 – Initiation of demand with a view that with the introduction of the works contract service w.e.f. 01/06/2007, the appellant should have discharged their tax liability under the said category – Appellant paid under commercial or industrial construction services – HELD – is seen from the said Rule that the option has to be exercised by the assessee who wants to discharge the service tax liability under the said category. In the present case, it was never the appellant who opted to pay under works contract but the Revenue required them to pay the tax under the works contract. In such a scenario, the question of assessee exercising any option before discharging the tax under the category of works contract does not arise at all. Such an view adopted by the adjudicating authority is neither appropriate nor legal inasmuch as the same cannot be adopted as a bar to the Revenue’s own stand of requiring the appellant to pay tax under the category of works contract – we set aside the impugned order and remand the matter to the adjudicating authority for de novo decision – Appeal allowed by remand