The Ahmedabad bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) held that commission agent services cannot be considered as branded services and they are not liable to pay Service Tax.
Venus Corporation, the appellant assessee provided service of Business Auxiliary Services to their clients such as Jet Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, All Four Season Travels, Sterling Dyechem, etc, and the service provided on the brand name of another person.
The assessee appealed against the order passed by the Commissioner for confirming the denial of an exemption from service tax claimed by the assessee.
Vipul Khandar, the counsel for the assessee contended that the service of Commission Agent was on behalf of the principal, and cannot be treated as branded service as for providing a Commission Agent Service there was no need of using the brand name of their client, and thus the denial of exemption was illegal and incorrect.
P. Ganesan, the counsel for the respondent relied on the decisions made by the lower authorities and contended that the denial of exemption claimed by the assessee was as per the law and liable to be sustained.
The Bench observed that the Commission Agent service provided by the assessee cannot be treated as branded service and exempted from payment of service tax under exemption Notification and the demand confirmed by the lower authorities denying exemption Notification was without any basis.
The two-member bench comprising Ramesh Nair (Judicial) and C.L Mahar (Technical) quashed the denial of the exemption passed by the Commissioner while allowing the appeal filed by the assessee.
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