GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF FINANCE
DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
CENTRAL BOARD OF EXCISE & CUSTOMS
(TAX RESEARCH UNIT)

D.O.F.No.334/1/2012-TRU

New Delhi dated the 29 th June, 2012.

You will be already aware that the Negative List, together with many other accompanying changes, comes into operation from July 1, 2012.

2. The necessary notifications from 25/2012-ST to 40/2012-ST and Notification No. 28/2012-CX (NT) were issued on June 20, 2012 and have comprehensive changes relating to exemptions, Place of Provision Rules, 2012, changes to Service Tax Rules, 1994, Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 and details of all the notifications that are being rescinded.

3. Notification No 52/2011-ST dated 30.12.2011 relating to refunds on specified services has also been revised in accordance with the new regime and the new notification No.41/2012-ST dated 29.06.2012 has been issued under the revised section 93A. Services of commission agents to exporters on the existing lines have also been validated by the issue of Notification No.42/2012-ST dated 29.06.2012.

4. There has been some doubt regarding the applicability of provisions of the Finance Act, 2004 relating to education cess and the Finance Act, 2007 relating to secondary and higher education cess as the concerned acts make reference to section 66 of the Finance Act, 1994, which shall cease to have effect from July 1, 2012. In this connection, as also in general, you may kindly refer to the sub-section (1) of section 8 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 which reads as under:

“Where this Act, or any Central Act or Regulation made after reference to the commencement of this Act, repeals and re-enacts, with or without modification, any provision of a former enactment, then references in any other enactment or in any instrument to the provision so repealed shall, unless a different intention appears, be construed as references to the provisions so re-enacted.”

Thus any reference to section 66 of the Finance Act, 1994 shall be construed as reference to the newly re-enacted provision i.e. section 66B of the same Act. Despite the stated position of law, the matter has been settled by the issue of Removal of Difficulties Order No. 2/2012 dated 29.06.2012.

5. It may be noted that Notification No. 11/2005-ST dated 19.04.2005 has not been rescinded to enable sanction of pending rebates. It shall, however, automatically cease to have effect for exports on or after July 1, 2012 as the Export of Services Rules, 2005 will stand superseded from the said date.

6. You may kindly go through all the changes and let me know at the earliest if anything is required in any manner for the smooth implementation of the new provisions.

7. The successful implementation of this reform requires an involved approach at all levels, in particular in the initial months. It is necessary that these changes are well understood by the tax payers as well as our staff. To this end CBEC has released an elaborate Educational Guide (with further improvisation over the draft Guidance Papers that were released at the time of budget) and adequate copies of the same should be available to you already or shortly. You may also like to download the same from CBEC website (from the dropdown menu under the title service tax).

8. It is clarified that any Board circular that is contrary to the revised law will stand automatically superseded. In case you have any doubt about any specific circular the same may be referred to the Board.

9. CBEC has already held five seminars during this month at Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad for both the trade and some of the officers in and around these places. Seminar at Mumbai is scheduled on July 13, 2012.

10. It will be desirable if similar events are held locally, supplemented also by training of our officers who have to implement the new provisions. If you need, some of the TRU officers could also assist subject a little bit to the exigencies of work here. Those who desire may source a copy of the power point presentation from TRU (by sending a request at garg.vk@nic.in).

11. Despite a very elaborate consultative process starting from August, 2011, when the first concept paper was released, it is likely that the actual implementation of negative list will throw some issues that appear a little complex. You may like to discuss them appropriately within your own set up and in appropriate cases refer them to the Board for suitable examination. Any precipitated action will be ill-advised at the early stages of implementation unless the revenue is at immediate stakes.

12. A list of services that are likely to come into the tax net in your charge may be drawn and communicated to me. This would help us to share the same with other formations as also provide information from other formations to you so that a coordinated approach is followed until the system gets streamlined.

13. In general any case resulting in taxation of an activity that is not liable to tax under the present regime should at least receive the attention of the Commissioner in charge before it is taken up for any further action.

14. Of equal importance is to devote attention to activities that are presently liable to tax and may cease to be taxed in future. Some of these have been clearly exempted. There could be others where, either due to a particular interpretation or due to applicability of Place of Provision Rules, 2012 or in some other manner, an interpretation may be taken that the same are no more liable to tax. Such cases may be immediately identified and in case of doubt referred to the Board.

15. The allotment of accounting heads is being communicated by a separate communication.

16. A spirit of Helpfulness, Understanding and Guidance (HUG for short) should guide us in balancing our task keeping in perspective the enormity of changes that are being implemented shortly.

(V K Garg)
Joint Secretary (TRU-II)