Service Tax Notifications Issued - The agony of long and unending wait finally over
YES, the rather agonising wait is over. For more than a month, we were flooded with calls and mails as to when the Board would come out with the notifications. We advised the Netizens not to be eager for the undesirable and we were certainly not eager to show initiative in unpleasant activities.
The Board finally came out with a slew of notifications yesterday and considering the enormity of their number, DDT had to come out with a supplementary yesterday to cover those notifications. The new taxable services and the various provisions of the Finance Act, 2010 related to service tax matters shall come into force with effect from July 1, 2010. Levy of clean energy cess also will come into effect from July 1, 2010.
Board also issued notifications exempting certain activities from levy of service tax in public interest. The prominent among them being (i) exemption from levy of service tax on transportation of persons by air from or to the north eastern states in India; (ii) exemption from levy of service tax on construction service provided to JNNURM and Rajiv Awas Yojana schemes; (iii) exemption to sponsorship services provided to sporting activities conducted by certain sports organizations and authorities; (iv) exemption to certain services provided within port or airport; (v) exemption from levy of service tax on distribution of electricity; (iv) exemption provided to certain types of air travel.