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TMI Blog2018 (8) TMI 816X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Business. During the period April, 2003 to August, 2004, appellants paid service tax under Management Maintenance and Repair service (MMR); thereafter they stopped paying Service Tax from September, 2004 and claimed a refund of service tax paid for the period up to August, 2004 which was sanctioned. From 16.06.2005 a separate service of "cleaning activity" was introduced in Service Tax Act, and the appellant took registration and had been paying service tax under protest until December, 2007 when they stopped paying of service tax on the services and informed the Department about such non-payment by letter dated 18th March, 2008. They also filed refund claims on 31st March, 2008 for the service tax paid from 1st April, 2007 to 30th Novembe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... -Appeal, the appeals have been filed before this Bench on the following grounds: i) Housekeeping services provided to ISB are not taxable under the category of cleaning services, because it is confined to commercial and industrial building services. ii) CBEC Circular No. 80/2004 - ST dated 17.09.2004 excludes constructions which are for the use of organizations or institutions being established solely for educational, charitable, health, sanitation or philanthropic purposes from the Service Tax. iii) CBEC Circular No. B1/06/2005-TRU dated 27.07.2005, specifically excludes cleaning services from the ambit of service tax, if they are provided to a non-commercial building. It has been held in the case of Indian School of Business Vs. CC ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... icultural, horticulture, animal husbandry or dairying." 7. The short point to be decided is whether the buildings of the Indian School of Business are to be treated as Commercial Buildings or not and consequently, the cleaning services rendered to them are taxable services or otherwise. 8. The Learned Counsel relied on the case of Great Lakes Institute of Management Limited (supra) and the Indian School of Business (supra) to argue that ISB is not a commercial institution. Therefore, the cleaning services rendered to the ISB are not liable to service tax. We find that these orders were passed in a specific context. It was to decide or not these institutions fall under category of exclusion from the definition of "Commercial Training and C ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lti-storeyed commercial buildings, window cleaning is a specialized service. Window cleaning services, including exterior window cleaning using swing stages would be liable to service tax; (iii) Floor cleaning and waxing, wall cleaning etc. performed on the premises of commercial or industrial buildings; (iv) Specialized cleaning services such as cleaning services for computer rooms, cleaning of machinery or plant, reservoirs and tanks of commercial or industrial buildings, furnace and chimney cleaning services and similar services. 9.3 However, such cleaning services in relation to agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry or dairying would be excluded from the purview of service tax. Further, such cleaning services in respect of n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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