2016 (6) TMI 1103

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..... NGRI. That the information/reply received under RTI Act from NGRI is not conclusive proof of payment of tax and cannot be accepted Held that:- The information / document made available by the Public Information Officer (PIO) is something which is already recorded in the official records of the public office/authority. On receiving application, the PIO just furnishes a copy of the information contained in the records kept in proper custody. Section 3 of RTI Act states that every citizen shall have the right to information and may obtain the same by submitting an application. The information so received shows that NGRI has paid service tax on the same services. The information having been provided by a public office under the provision of .....

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..... rvice tax under the subcontract agreement. After due process of law, the original authority held that appellants are liable to pay the service tax. In appeal, Commissioner(Appeals) upheld the liability to pay the tax but reduced the penalty. Hence the present appeal. 2. On behalf of the appellant, it was submitted that NGRI (the main contractor) had taken the job for ₹ 4.8 crore and out of this, work value of only ₹ 2.38 crore was undertaken by appellants. That NGRI who is the main contractor had discharged the liability of service tax on the services rendered. That therefore appellant who is a subcontractor is not liable to pay service tax on the same services. To establish this, appellant furnished information received from .....

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..... lakhs is yet to be received by NGRI. The learned AR strongly contended that the information given under RTI cannot be relied to establish discharge of service tax as it is only secondary evidence. Further that an amount of ₹ 34.56 lakhs was pending payment by M/s. Essar Oil Ltd. (service recipient) and that there is no evidence whether service tax on this balance amount is paid or not. The RTI information is seen dated 04/02/2011. The appellant has furnished this document before the original authority. Till this date, the department though contends that it is not conclusive proof has not made any steps to verify the details given as per the information as to whether the liability has been discharged fully by the main contractor (NGRI .....

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