Service tax on bundled service - cancellation charges

student (Final) (157 Points)

15 October 2015  

Hi All,

I have a doubt in Service Tax, I wish to have your valuable opinions.

Can a hotel booking made purely for room purpose be called as bundled service? What tax rate should be applied for the cancellation and no show charges?

Reason for the doubt:- Terms and conditions for the hotel booking will have a clause for the cancellation, say they charge 20% of room tariff(say Rs.2,000) and assume he paid one room night in advance(Say Rs.10,000 per night). Now, if we analyze there are two services embedded in it

  1. Agreement to provide room – Dominant character and taxable at 8.4%.     
  2. Tolerance for the cancellation- Taxable at 14%.

Suppose the guest cancels the booking, what rate of tax should be applied on the Rs. 2,000? Is it the abated rate of 8.4% (if bundled service then rate at which the dominant character service is taxable) or normal 14%?

Please justify your opinion with a legal backing.

Thanks in advance.