International Roaming facility collection of Service Tax — Clarification - Service Tax - 02/99 - Rajkot

I am directed to say that doubts have been raised whether Board s Service Tax Circular No. 22/2/97, dated 3rd September, 1997 would also apply to International roaming facility. 2. The matter has been examined by the Board. In the case of International roaming the foreign visited network operator forwards the usage bills to the Home Network operator pertaining to the subscribers of Home Network operator who have made usage of visited network. On receipt of the usage bill from the foreign network operator the Home Network operator includes the said amount and roaming surcharge in the regular monthly bill of the subscriber. As the value of taxable service under Section 67(b) of the Finance Act, 1994 as amended is the gross total amount charged by the telegraph authority (here Home Network operator) from the subscribers, the Board is of the view that the service tax shall be chargeable on the comprehensive (gross) bill raised by Home Network operator on its subscribers inclusive of foreign usage bill and roaming surcharge. 3. Accordingly it is held that the Service Tax Circular No. 22/2/97, dated 3-9-1997 would not only apply to plastic roaming facility but also apply mutatis mutandis to automatic roaming facility including International Automatic/plastic roaming facility provided by Cellular phone operators.