Services used for exports – Exemption/Refund
THE exemption for service tax on services used for export of goods, operate in a complicated refund procedure and refund is as you know next to impossible in the Central Excise department. Now Notification No. 17/2009 – Service Tax dated 7.7.2009 provides for refund of service tax paid on 16 listed items of service. Certain new services were introduced in the Finance Act 2009, but they were not considered for inclusion in the list for being eligible for refund.
In DDT 1187 01.09.2009, under the caption, Service Tax - Un-notified Issues, we had pointed out that Notifications 17/09 ST and 18/09 ST both dated 7.7.2009 also need suitable amendments.
Board has reacted after more than a month and has now added Sl No. 17 to Notification 17/09 ST to include Service provided for transport of export goods through national waterway, inland water and coastal shipping as eligible for the refund scheme. But is it only from the date of this new notification? Board alone knows.
Notification No. , Dated: September 30, 2009