Service Tax

The responsibility of collecting the tax lies with the Central Board of Excise and Customs(CBEC). Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) is a part of the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It deals with the tasks of formulation of policy concerning levy and collection of Customs and Central Excise duties, prevention of smuggling and administration of matters relating to Customs, Central Excise and Narcotics to the extent under CBEC's purview. The Board is the administrative authority for its subordinate organizations, including Custom Houses, Central Excise Commissionerates and the Central Revenues Control Laboratory.
The provisions relating to Service Tax were brought into force with effect from 1 July 1994. The services, brought under the tax net in the year 1994-95, are as below: (1) Telephone (2) Stockbroker (3) General Insurance
The Finance Act (2) 1996 enlarged the scope of levy of Service Tax covering three more services, viz., (4) Advertising agencies, (5) Courier agencies (6) Radio pager services. But tax on these services was made applicable from 1 November, 1996.
The Finance Acts of 1997 and 1998 further extended the scope of service tax to cover a larger number of services rendered by the following service providers, from the dates indicated against each of them. (7) Consulting engineers (7 July, 1997) (8) Custom house agents (15 June, 1997) (9) Steamer agents (15 June, 1997) (10) Clearing & forwarding agents (16 July, 1997) (11) Air travel agents --- (1 July, 1997) (12) Tour operators (exempted up to 31.3.2000 Notification No.52/98, 8 July, 1998, reintroduced w.e.f. 1.4.2000) (13) Rent-a-Cab Operators (exempted up to 31.3.2000 Vide Notification No.3/99 Dt.28.2.99, reintroduced w.e.f. 1.4.2000) (14) Manpower recruitment Agency (1 July, 1997) (15) Mandap Keepers (1 July, 1997)