The Mumbai Bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) held that no service tax is leviable on online ticketing platform under support of Book My Show not receiving consideration from the card companies.
One of the services provided by the appellant is making facility to the customers to book online tickets of movies and other shows. For the said purpose, appellant has provided one online ticketing platform under the aegis of www.bookmyshow.com. The said platform has brought together the customers who wish to book tickets for movies and other shows. For providing such a platform, appellant has entered into contracts with movie houses and those who organize various events.
It appeared to Revenue that during the period from financial year 2010-11 to financial year 2014-15, appellant collected around Rs.52.78 crores from the card companies and, therefore, appellant was required to pay service tax of Rs.6,33,96,482/- as service tax and the said service tax was demanded from the appellant through a show cause notice.
The counsel for the appellant submitted that if there is no consideration, then service is not provided and relied on the decision of this Tribunal in the case of CCE vs. Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd, which was affirmed by the Supreme Court.
It was pointed out that Revenue has not shown any evidence to establish that out of the amount that was borne by the card companies as offers to ultimate customers was not paid to the cinema houses and was retained by the appellant as consideration for providing business support service.
A Two-Member Bench comprising Anil G. Shakkarwar, Member (Technical) and Dr. Suvendu Kumar Pati, Member (Judicial) observed that “As per the agreement, card companies were required to reimburse the appellant all the amounts that were being offered by the card companies to their customers through the ticket booking platform. Appellant had entered into agreements with cinema houses for payment of tickets booked through their platform. For booking of tickets through their platform, appellant collected convenience fee and paid service tax on the same.”
“The allegation in the proceedings are that the appellant had provided business support service to card companies. It was admitted in the show cause notice that the appellant was not raising any invoice to the card companies. It is very simple in the accounting standards that unless invoice is raised consideration is not collected. Therefore, it is very clear from the record that the appellant was not receiving any consideration from card companies” the Tribunal concluded.
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