Service Tax Rules, 1994 — Various changes — 05/2015

In exer­cise of the pow­ers con­ferred by sub-sec­tion (1) read with sub­sec­tion (2) of sec­tion 94 of the Finance Act, 1994 (32 of 1994), the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment here­by makes the fol­low­ing rules fur­ther to amend the Ser­vice Tax Rules, 1994, namely:-

1. (1) These rules may be called the Ser­vice Tax (Amend­ment) Rules, 2015.

(2) Save as oth­er­wise pro­vid­ed in these rules, they shall come into force on the 1st day of March, 2015.

2. In the Ser­vice Tax Rules, 1994,-

(a) in rule 2, in sub-rule (1),-

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

‘(aa) “aggre­ga­tor” means a per­son, who owns and man­ages a web based soft­ware appli­ca­tion, and by means of the appli­ca­tion and a com­mu­ni­ca­tion device, enables a poten­tial cus­tomer to con­nect with per­sons pro­vid­ing ser­vice of a par­tic­u­lar kind under the brand name or trade name of the aggregator;’;

(ii) after clause (bc), the fol­low­ing clause shall be insert­ed, namely:-

‘(bca) “brand name or trade name” means, a brand name or a trade name, whether reg­is­tered or not, that is to say, a name or a mark, such as an invent­ed word or writ­ing, or a sym­bol, mono­gram, logo, label, sig­na­ture, which is used for the pur­pose of indi­cat­ing, or so as to indi­cate a con­nec­tion, in the course of trade, between a ser­vice and some per­son using the name or mark with or with­out any indi­ca­tion of the iden­ti­ty of that person;’;

(iii) in clause (d), in sub-clause (i),-

(I) after item (AA), the fol­low­ing item shall be insert­ed, namely:-

‘(AAA) in rela­tion to ser­vice pro­vid­ed or agreed to be pro­vid­ed by a per­son involv­ing an aggre­ga­tor in any man­ner, the aggre­ga­tor of the service:

Pro­vid­ed that if the aggre­ga­tor does not have a phys­i­cal pres­ence in the tax­able ter­ri­to­ry, any per­son rep­re­sent­ing the aggre­ga­tor for any pur­pose in the tax­able ter­ri­to­ry shall be liable for pay­ing ser­vice tax;

Pro­vid­ed fur­ther that if the aggre­ga­tor does not have a phys­i­cal pres­ence or does not have a rep­re­sen­ta­tive for any pur­pose in the tax­able ter­ri­to­ry, the aggre­ga­tor shall appoint a per­son in the tax­able ter­ri­to­ry for the pur­pose of pay­ing ser­vice tax and such per­son shall be liable for pay­ing ser­vice tax.’;

(II) in item (E), from such date as the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment may, by a noti­fi­ca­tion in the Offi­cial Gazette, appoint, the word “sup­port” shall be omitted;

(III) after item (EE), the fol­low­ing items shall be insert­ed with effect from the 1st day of April 2015, namely:-

“(EEA) in rela­tion to ser­vice pro­vid­ed or agreed to be pro­vid­ed by a mutu­al fund agent or dis­trib­u­tor to a mutu­al fund or asset man­age­ment com­pa­ny, the recip­i­ent of the service;

(EEB) in rela­tion to ser­vice pro­vid­ed or agreed to be pro­vid­ed by a sell­ing or mar­ket­ing agent of lot­tery tick­ets to a lot­tery dis­trib­u­tor or sell­ing agent, the recip­i­ent of the service;”;

(b) in rule 4,-

(i) sub-rule (1A) shall be omitted.

(ii) after sub-rule (8), the fol­low­ing sub-rule shall be insert­ed, namely:-

“(9) The reg­is­tra­tion grant­ed under this rule shall be sub­ject to such con­di­tions, safe­guards and pro­ce­dure as may be spec­i­fied by an order issued by the Board.”;

© after rule 4B, the fol­low­ing rule shall be insert­ed, namely:-

“4C. Authen­ti­ca­tion by dig­i­tal signature-

(1) Any invoice, bill or chal­lan issued under rule 4A or con­sign­ment note issued under rule 4B may be authen­ti­cat­ed by means of a dig­i­tal signature.

(2) The Board may, by noti­fi­ca­tion, spec­i­fy the con­di­tions, safe­guards and pro­ce­dure to be fol­lowed by any per­son issu­ing dig­i­tal­ly signed invoices.”;

(d) in rule 5, after sub-rule (3), the fol­low­ing sub-rules shall be insert­ed, namely,-

“(4) Records under this rule may be pre­served in elec­tron­ic form and every page of the record so pre­served shall be authen­ti­cat­ed by means of a dig­i­tal signature.

(5) The Board may, by noti­fi­ca­tion, spec­i­fy the con­di­tions, safe­guards and pro­ce­dure to be fol­lowed by an assessee pre­serv­ing dig­i­tal­ly signed records.

Expla­na­tion — For the pur­pos­es of rule 4C and sub-rule (4) and (5) of this rule,-

(i) The expres­sion “authen­ti­cate” shall have the same mean­ing as assigned in the Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Act, 2000 (21 of 2000).

(ii) The expres­sion “dig­i­tal sig­na­ture” shall have the mean­ing as defined in the Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Act, 2000 (21 of 2000) and the expres­sion “dig­i­tal­ly signed” shall be con­strued accordingly.”

(e) in rule 6,

(i) sub-rule (6A) shall be omit­ted, with effect from the date on which the Finance Bill, 2015, receives the assent of the President;

(ii) from such dates as the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment may, by a noti­fi­ca­tion in the Offi­cial Gazette, appoint,-

(a) in sub-rule (7), for the fig­ures “0.6%” and “1.2 %”, the fig­ures and words “0.7 per cent.” and “1.4 per cent.” shall respec­tive­ly be substituted;

(b) in sub-rule (7A), in clause (ii), for the fig­ures and words “3 per cent.” and “1.5 per cent.”, the fig­ures and words “3.5 per cent.” and “1.75 per cent.” shall respec­tive­ly be substituted;”;

© in sub-rule (7B),-

(i) in item (a), for the fig­ures and words “0.12 per cent” and “rupees 30”, the fig­ures and words “0.14 per cent” and “rupees 35” shall respec­tive­ly be substituted;

(ii) in item (b), for the fig­ures and words “120 and 0.06 per cent”, the fig­ures and words “140 and 0.07 per cent.” shall be substituted;

(iii) in item ©, for the fig­ures and words “660 and 0.012 per cent” and “rupees 6,000”, the fig­ures and words “770 and 0.014 per cent” and “rupees 7,000” shall respec­tive­ly be substituted;

(d) in sub-rule (7C),-

(A) in the Table, in col­umn (2),-

(i) against Sl. No. 1, for the fig­ures “7000”, the fig­ures “8200” shall be substituted;

(ii) against Sl. No. 2, for the fig­ures “11000”, the fig­ures “12800” shall be substituted;

(B) in the Expla­na­tion, item (i) shall be omit­ted, with effect from the date on which the Finance Bill, 2015, receives the assent of the President.

Note:-The prin­ci­pal noti­fi­ca­tion was pub­lished in the Gazette of India, Extra­or­di­nary, Part II, Sec­tion 3, Sub-sec­tion (i) by noti­fi­ca­tion No. 2/94-Ser­vice Tax, dat­ed the 28th June, 1994 vide num­ber G.S.R. 546 (E), dat­ed the 28th June, 1994 and last amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.23/2014-Service Tax, dat­ed the 5th Decem­ber, 2014 vide num­ber G.S.R. 872(E)., dat­ed the 5th Decem­ber, 2014.

NOTIFICATION No. 5/2015-Ser­vice Tax

New Del­hi, the 1st March, 2015