Custom, Excise & Service Tax Tribunal
M/S Devi Engineering Syndicate vs Cce, C & St, Visakhapatnam-I on 6 October, 2016
CUSTOMS, EXCISE AND SERVICE TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL REGIONAL BENCH AT HYDERABAD Bench SMB Court I Appeal No. ST/2695/2010 (Arising out of Order-in-Appeal No. 29/2010 (V-I) ST dt. 02.09.2010 passed by CCE, C & ST (Appeal), Visakhapatnam) For approval and signature: Honble Ms. Sulekha Beevi, C.S., Member (Judicial) 1. Whether Press Reporters may be allowed to see the Order for publication as per Rule 27 of the CESTAT (Procedure) Rules, 1982? 2. Whether it should be released under Rule 27 of the CESTAT (Procedure) Rules, 1982 for publication in any authoritative report or not? 3. Whether their Lordship wish to see the fair copy of the Order? 4. Whether Order is to be circulated to the Departmental authorities? M/s Devi Engineering Syndicate ..Appellant(s) Vs. CCE, C & ST, Visakhapatnam-I ..Respondent(s)
Appearance Ms. A.S.K. Swetha, Advocate for the Appellant.
Sh. Guna Ranjan, Superintendent (AR) for the Respondent.
Coram:
Honble Ms. Sulekha Beevi, C.S., Member (Judicial) Date of Hearing: 06.10.2016 Date of Decision: 06.10.2016 FINAL ORDER No._______________________ [Order per: Sulekha Beevi, C.S.] The above appeal is filed by the appellant being aggrieved by the imposition of penalty under section 78 of the Finance Act, 1994.
2. The appellants are engaged in activities like civil constructions, erection and commissioning of mobile towers. On starting investigations against the appellant for the reason that they were not discharging their liability towards service tax, the appellant paid the service tax along with interest. Thereafter, the department issued show cause notice proposing for imposition of equal amount of penalty.
3. It is not disputed that the appellant has discharged the liability of service tax along with interest before issuance of the show cause notice. Subsection (3) of Section 73 provides that in case the appellant discharged the liability of service tax along with interest on own assessment or on being pointed out by the department, no show cause notice shall be issued to the assessee. Further in the judgment CCE & ST, LTU, Bangalore Vs M/s Adecco Flexione Workforce Solution Ltd., [2012 (026) STR 3 (Kar)] the Honble High Court of Karnataka has held that no penalty can be imposed when the appellant has discharged the service tax along with interest liability before the issuance of show cause notice. Following the decision laid in the above judgment I hold that the imposition of penalty is unjustified. The impugned order to the extent of imposing penalties is set aside. The appeal is allowed in above terms with consequential reliefs, if any.
(Pronounced & dictated in open court) (SULEKHA BEEVI C.S.) MEMBER (JUDICIAL) Jaya.
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