Foolish RBI suffers heavy losses by playing blind in forex market-sold dollars at lower rates to contain fall of Rupee-Rupee plunges to record low of 56 against Dollar-Sensex slips below 16000 Points Justice VS Sirpurkar is Chairman of Competition Appellate Tribunal AK Pandey appointed as High Commissioner to New Zealand Facebook shares drop below issue price FM okays transfer & posting orders of Commissioners of Customs & Excise-A dozen Commissioners posted in NCR in transfer list-Commissioner Gurgaon & Ghaziabad also in the list according to North Block sources Government tables White Paper on Black Money in Parliament India's first Interactive Online Course on Service Tax launched-Click on the link-Service Tax Online Certification Course-for full details and registration-Course begins on 22nd May 167 IRS(Customs & Excise) Probationers get postings- A dozen Probationers posted in Delhi Central Excise Rajya Sabha passes Finance Bill 2012 Petrol & Diesel prices to be hiked Tariff Value for import of Brass scrap is 4362 & for poppy seeds 3680-for gold 507 per 10 gram & for silver 920 per kg-Customs Non-Tariff Notification No.42 Customs duty exempted on import of 191 Products from Singapore-Customs Tariff Notification No.33 Import of 485 Products from Singapore exempted from Customs duty-Customs Tariff Notification No.34 Import of 496 Products from Singapore exempted from 50 per cent of applied rate of duty-Customs Tariff Notification No.35 Saurabh Chandra gets additional charge of Commerce Secretary ITAT Member N Vasudevan transferred from Mumbai to Bangalore-J Sudhakar Reddy moves from Mumbai to Delhi-IP Bansal from Delhi to Mumbai-IC Sudhir from Pune to Delhi CVD on imported electronics lowered due to higher rates of abatement from RSP notified-Abatement from MRP for excise payment on all electronic products prescribed at uniform rate of 35 per cent-Abatement revised for several products-Central Excise Non-Tariff Notification No.26 Suppliers to Mega Power Projects face silly excise demands-Click on the link below for full details Excise demand of Rs 32 Crore confirmed against Exide for not paying excise on MRP basis on lead acid storage battery RBI says Exporters required to convert 50 per cent of their foreign exchange holdings into Rupee within 15 days-Exporters will be allowed to buy foreign currency only after utilizing all their foreign currency holdings Articles of jewellery exempted from excise duty-Specified Railway Goods manufactured by Government exempted from excise -Central Excise Tariff Notification No.23 Excise on specified Petroleum Oils lowered Eye makeup preparations exempted from excise The excise exemption hitherto admissible on all Hawai Chappals will now be admissible to only Hawai Chappals of RSP up to Rs 500-Polyester staple fibre or polyester filament yarn, manufactured from plastic scrap or plastic waste including waste polyethylene terephthalate bottles exempted from excise-Excise on Motor chassis for vehicles lowered to 14 per cent excise-Excise on LED Lights of Chapter 85 lowered to 6 per cent-Inks for ball point pens exempted from excise-Central Excise Tariff Notification No.24-Parts of Footwear and hawai chappals of RSP not exceeding Rs. 500 per pair exempted from excise if consumed in factory-Central Excise Tariff Notification No.25-Excise exemption to goods required for initial setting up of solar power generation project or facility-Central Excise Tariff Notification No.26 CENVAT Credit (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2012-No reversal of credit required for supplies made for setting up of solar power generation projects or facilities-Central Excise Non-Tariff Notification No.25 exemption from wholeof the additional duty leviable shall not apply to Hand held Metal/Mine/Bomb detectors etc.-Customs Tariff Notification No.30 Import of specified goods allowed at concessional rate of duty-Customs Notification No.31 FM defers the applicability of GAAR provisions by one year- GAAR provisions will now apply to income of Financial Year 2013-14 and subsequent years-The retrospective clarificatory amendments now under consideration of Parliament will not be used to reopen any cases where assessment orders have already been finalized-long term capital gain arising from sale of unlisted securities in case of non-resident investors, including PE investors lowered to 10 per cent-FM extends benefit of tax exemption on long term capital gains to sale of unlisted securities in IPO-lower rate of withholding tax of 5% for funding all businesses-FM withdraws the provision for levy of TDS on transfer of immovable property-FM raises the threshold limit for TCS on cash purchases of jewellery to Rs.5 lakh-only serious offences under the customs law involving prohibited goods or duty evasion exceeding Rs.50 lakh, shall be cognizable- all these offences shall be bailable-changes in the definition of “service” which will exclude the activities specified in the Constitution as “deemed sale of goods”-The definition of “works contract” also enlarged to include movable properties- Exemption for specified services relating to agriculture in the Negative List extended to agricultural produce enlarging the scope of the entry Anti-dumping duty on imports of Partially Oriented Yarn, originating in, or exported from China-Customs Notification No.22 Customs duty on import of 806 Products from Japan lowered Anti-dumping duty imposed on import of Phosphoric Acid of all grades and all concentrations (excluding Agriculture/FertilizerGrade) , falling under tariff item 28092010, originating in, or exported from,Israel and Taiwan-Customs Tariff Notification No.19 Customs duty on import of composite fertiliser lowered to 1 per cent-Customs Tariff Notification No. 24

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Order No. 2/1/2002-ST, dated 24-4-2002

F. No. 137/04/2002-CX.4

Government of India

Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue)

Central Board of Excise & Customs, New Delhi

Subject : Providing service of storage facility and charging rent for storage of liquid cargo in tanks - whether liable to service tax as C & F Agents, - regarding.

In exercise of the powers conferred under Section 37B of the Central Excise Act, 1994 (as made applicable to Service Tax by Section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994), the Central Board of Excise & Customs considers it necessary, for the purposes of uniformity in connection with classification of services, to issue the following instructions.

2.Doubts have been raised as to whether service of storage facility and charging rent for storage of liquid cargo in tanks, provided by certain agencies, can be considered as a service provided by ‘clearing and forwarding agents’ or not.

3.This matter was raised by four such agencies before the Mumbai High Court in Writ Petition Nos. 170/2002, 171/2002, 2962/2001 & 2994/2001. The petitions were disposed of by

Hon’ble Court

with directions to the Central Board of Excise & Customs to pass appropriate speaking clarification and/or, orders after hearing the petitioners.

4.The agencies were accordingly heard in the matter on 19th March, 2002 and on 3rd April.

5.Views of DGST and concerned Commissioners of Central Excise have also been obtained.

6.It is observed that the above agencies are engaged in the activity of providing storage (tanks) facility for liquid cargo which has been imported or is intended for export. They charge rent for storage of liquid cargo deposited with them.

7.It is observed that, as per Section 65 of Finance Act, 1994, ‘Clearing & Forwarding Agent’ means “any person who is engaged in providing any service, either directly or indirectly connected with the clearing and forwarding operations in any manner to any other persons and includes a consignment Agent”. Further, ‘taxable service’ with respect to C & F Agents means, any service provided to a client by a clearing and forwarding agent in relation to clearing and forwarding operations, in any manner.

8.The issue is whether the activity/service of providing storage facility and charging rent, for storage of liquid cargo in tanks, can fall under the category of ‘Clearing and Forwarding’ operations as defined under Section 65 of Finance Act, 1994.

9.The main point raised by the agencies is that they are not at all rendering any clearing and forwarding services and hence they do not come under the category of clearing and forwarding agents. They simply issue Invoices /Bills to their customers towards storage charges only and for no other charges.

10.The matter has been examined. Normally, a C & F agent receives goods from the factories or premises of the Principal or his agents, stores these goods, despatches these goods as per orders received from the Principal or owner, arranges transport, etc. for the purpose and prepares invoices on behalf of the Principal. For this service, the C & F agents receives commissions on the basis of agreed terms. Therefore, an essential characteristic of any services, to fall in the category of C & F agent, is that the relationship between the service provider and receiver should be in the nature of principal (owner) and agent. The C & F agent carries out all activities in respect of goods right from stage of their clearances from the premises of the principal to its storage and delivery to the customers.

11.However, in the cases under consideration, the agencies are providing only storage facility for liquid cargo which has been imported or is intended for export. They charge rent for storage of liquid cargo deposited with them. They are not connected with the vessel bringing the goods and are not concerned with customs formalities. They issue invoices to customers towards storage charges and for no other charges. These agencies are not receiving any commission from the principal but only rental for storage facility, whereas a C & F agent’s remunerations is in the form of commission. The transactions between the parties are not transactions between principal and an agent but between principal and principal. These agencies are neither receiving any despatch orders from the owners of the goods, nor are they arranging for the despatch of goods as per their directions by engaging transport, as is done normally by C & F agents. They are also not carrying out any service directly or indirectly in connection with clearing and forwarding operations. Therefore, services rendered by such agencies, in relation to storage of cargo, cannot be considered to be in the nature of ‘clearing and forwarding’ and such agencies cannot be considered as “clearing and forwarding agents”.

12.However, under the Finance Bill, 2002, “storage and warehousing services for goods including liquids and gases” is proposed to be made to liable to service tax. Section 65(87) of the proposed amended Finance Act, 1994, defines “storage and warehousing” to include storage and warehousing services for goods including liquids and gases but does not include any service provided for storage of agricultural produce or any services provided by cold storage. Therefore, as and when these provisions of the Finance Bill come into effect the above types of cases shall be liable to service tax under the head “storage and warehousing”.

13.Suitable Trade notice may issued for information of trade and field formations.

14.The receipt of this order may kindly be acknowledged.

15.Hindi version will follow.