Customs, Excise and Gold Tribunal - Bangalore
Akbar Travels Of India (P) Ltd. vs The Commissioner Of Customs And Central ... on 13 February, 2008
ORDER T.K. Jayaraman, Member (T)
Sl. No. Orders-in-Appeal No. Penalty imposed 1 11/2006 ST dated 22.12.2006 Rs. 19,31,853 Under Section 76 & 78 of the Finance Act, 1994 2 126/2006 ST dated 14.06.2006 Rs. 26,11,472/-
3129/2006 ST dated 14.06.2006 Rs. 13,88,053/-
1. The details of the three appeals are given below in the Tabular Column.
2. Mr. V.P.A. Rehman, learned Advocate, appeared on behalf of the appellant and Ms Sudha Koka, learned SDR, for the Revenue.
3. We heard both sides.
4. The appellants M/s. Akbar Travel are Air Travel Agents. They have been registered under the category of "Air Travel Agent" with the Excise Authority. They are liable to pay service tax in respect of the air tickets booked by them from all the passengers. However, it was noticed that they had not paid service tax on the entire value of the air tickets booked by them. Therefore, Revenue proceeded against them. It was submitted on behalf of the appellants that the authorities informed them that in respect of the Hajj pilgrims, service tax need not be collected. Therefore, it is their contention that in respect of the Hajj pilgrims they had not collected the service tax and therefore they did not pay it up. However, when the lapse was pointed out it was stated by them they had paid most of the amount before the issue of the show cause notice and a part of the amount before the issue of the Order-in-Original.
5. The learned Departmental Representative stated that it is not correct to say that only in respect of the Hajj pilgrims they had not paid the service tax due. It can be seen that even in respect of the tickets of other category, the appellants had not paid the service tax in time. They had actually suppressed the value of the service tax as can be seen from the show cause notice. Therefore, he said that the impugned orders have to be upheld.
6. On a very careful consideration of the issue, we find that the appellants had not paid service tax in respect of the tickets booked by them for Hajj pilgrims. However, it is seen that most of the amounts had been paid before the issue of show cause notice and balance amount has been paid even before the Order-in-Original has been issued. This is evident on going through the Orders-in-Originals as the Original Authority has recorded about the payment of the service tax. The prayer of the appellant is that the penalty is too harsh and there was actually no suppression of facts with an intend to evade payment of duty. There is also request for setting aside the interest also.
7. On a careful consideration of the issue, we find that as the appellants had paid the major portion of the service tax before the issue of show cause notice and the balance amount even before the Orders-in-Original was issued. In the facts and circumstances of this case, we would deem it proper to take a lenient view in the matter and feel that the provisions of Section 80 of the Finance Act could have been issued in this case. In any case, the appellants are liable to pay their interest. Hence, we set aside the penalties imposed under Section 78 of the Finance Act and allow the appeal. We allow the appeals in the above manner.
(Operative portion of this Order was pronounced in open court on conclusion of hearing)