10 July 2013
Qst. According to Notification 42/2012 dated 29.06.2012 service tax is exempted on Service provided by a commission agent outside India and engaged under a contract or agreement or any other document by the exporter in India, to act on behalf of the exporter, to cause sale of goods exported by him subject to conditions.
We fulfill all condition except late filing the EXP 4 return. Actual due date for the period Apr'12 to Sept'12 is 15.10.2012 but we filed it on 27.02.2013. Now department issue show cause notice and demanding service tax.
10 July 2013
Due date for April- June 2012 was 25/11/2012 and for July-Sept 2012 was 30/04/2013. And just because you did not filed ur return (As u said) department cannot ask u to pay service tax, but will demand late fling fees.
14 July 2013
one of the condition to avail exemption is that return should be filed within 15 days. But non compliance of such procedural lapse cannot be a ground to disallow the substantial benefits given under law.
Kindly refer case law of Um Cables Ltd. Vs. Union of India and Others [2013-TIOL-386-HC-MUM-CX] In this case the High Court of Mumbai held that rebate under Rule 18 of the Central Excise Rules,2002 cannot be rejected on grounds of non submission of original and duplicate ARE-1 forms, which is only a procedural requirement under notification issued under Rule 18 thereof.
On the basis of above judgement you can argue with officers.
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