9911796707
TMI Blog2012 (10) TMI 723X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ndia Pvt. Ltd. have paid an incentive/commission to the appellant - amount collected as incentive is in no way connected to the service rendered by the appellant to their clients in providing the service of booking air tickets nor it is billed to the clients - appellant is not liable to pay service tax on the amount collected as incentive. As the demand itself is not valid the question of demanding interest and imposing penalty do not arise - Appeal is allowed X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ant had filed this appeal mainly on the following grounds : (i) that the admitted and undisputed facts is that they are using software supplied by M/s. Amadeus India Pvt. Ltd. for booking International Flight Tickets. The tickets can be booked by the Travel agents using various means viz. telephone, telex/fax, internet or Computer Reservation System (CRS) software. There are various CRS available viz. Amadeus, Galileo, Wordspan etc. The travel agents are at liberty and they have the option to use any CRS provided by the above persons. In their case, they are using CRS provided by Amadeus India Pvt. Ltd. For continuous usage of the CRS provided by them, M/s. Admadeus had given incentives to them as a loyalty reward. They had not rendered an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... not subject to service tax. Hence, they had not reported the same in the ST3 return. Merely because of non reporting the details in ST3 return, one cannot come to a conclusion that they had suppressed the fact with an intent to evade payment of Service tax. The commission received by them are duly accounted in their books of accounts and also disclosed in Annual Report, which is a public document and also known to the Department. Hence, the demand if any beyond the normal period may kindly be set aside on the grounds of limitation also apart from merits. 4. A Personal hearing was held on 19-7-2011. Shri M. Saravanan, Consultant appeared on the behalf of the appellant. During the hearing, he submitted that his client is not liable to p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eported the same in the ST3 return. The Department had alleged that the fact of receipt of incentive/commission was not disclosed in any manner. To this the appellant had submitted that the commission received by them are duly accounted in their books of accounts and also disclosed in Annual Report, which is a public document and also known to the Department. Having disclosed the receipt of incentives in the Annual Report, I find that there is no suppression of facts in the instant case with an intention to evade payment of Service tax. Hence, I hold that the proviso to extended period of time cannot be invoked in this case and the major part of the demand period is hit by limitation of time. The demand period survives only from 1-10-2007. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt is that the amount received as incentive/commission has nothing to do with the service they are providing to their customers in air ticket booking. In support they have relied upon the case law of Tribunal Bangalore's decision in the case of Kerala Publicity Bureau v. CCE reported in 2008 (9) S.T.R. 101 (Tri.-Bang.). I find that the case law relied upon by the appellant is applicable to them. The operative portion of the case law is reproduced below :- "In addition to this cash discount, the appellants received incentives from certain publications after they reached certain targets of advertising business given to them. This incentive is called target incentive. It is in no way connected to the service rendered to the clients nor is bil ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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