Governemnt as receiver of service from a foreign consultant

SIDDHARTHA SANKAR ROY (Government Servant -MOF)   (868 Points)

24 November 2008  

One of State Government Department has received engineering consultancy from a company based in france which has no office in India. Now as we know in case iof mport of services under the reverese charge mechanism, the receipent of the service in India is made liable to pay the service tax. Please comment whether in case of Government Department, the charge of service tax should be on them or not ?