service tax update

SERVICE TAX UPDATE

1.Central government has issued a Notification No. 19/2015-ST dt. 14th October, 2015, with reference to the general practice prevailing in the industry of not paying the service tax on the services provided by an Indian Bank or other entity acting as an agent to the Money Transfer Service Operators (hereinafter referred to as MTSO), in relation to remittance of foreign currency from outside India to India (hereinafter referred to as the said practice), and which service was liable to service tax, which was not being paid according to the said practice. 

Now vide this notification, the Central Government directs that the service tax payable under section 66B of the Finance Act, 1994, on the service provided by an Indian Bank or other entity acting as an agent to the MTSO in relation to remittance of foreign currency from outside India to India, for the period 1st July 2012 to 13th October 2014, shall not be required to be paid.

2. NOTIFICATION : No. 20/2015-Service Tax New Delhi, the 21st October, 2015

G.S.R.….(E).- In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 93 of the Finance Act, 1994 (32 of 1994), the Central Government, being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby makes the following further amendments in the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) No. 25/2012-Service Tax, dated the 20th June, 2012, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i) vide number G.S.R. 467 (E), dated the 20th June, 2012, namely:-

In the said notification,-

(i) in the opening paragraph, in entry 29, for clause (g), the following clauses shall be substituted, namely-

“(g) business facilitator or a business correspondent to a banking company with respect to a Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account covered by Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana in the banking company’s rural area branch, by way of account opening, cash deposits, cash withdrawals, obtaining e-life certificate, Aadhar seeding;

(ga) any person as an intermediary to a business facilitator or a business correspondent with respect to services mentioned in clause (g);

(gb) business facilitator or a business correspondent to an insurance company in a rural area; or”

(ii) in paragraph 2,-

(a)    after clause (g), the following clause shall be inserted, namely :-

“(ga) Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account means a Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account opened under the guidelines issued by Reserve Bank of India relating thereto;”

(b) in clause (k), in sub-clause (ii), for the words “religion or spirituality”, the words “religion, spirituality or yoga” shall be substituted.

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