The Rule 6 confusion

By Vijay Kumar

This week we carried too many stories on Service Tax and the difficulties of Rule 6 were in focus. A very knowledgeable netizen wrote to us:-

When the definition of output service is 'any taxable service provided by the provider of taxable service to a customer,..... and the words 'provided' and 'provider' shall be construed accordingly', there would not be any scope for application of Rule 6(2). This is because, the rule starts by saying 'Where a manufacturer or provider of output service avails of CENVAT credit in respect of any inputs or input services, except inputs intended to be used as fuel, and manufactures such final products or provides such output service which are chargeable to duty or tax as well as exempted goods or services,.............'

The following issues arise with the above inconsistency:

1. When the provider of output service is meant to be a person who provides a taxable service, where is the provision in the definitions to cover persons who provide either exempted services / taxable and exempted services. This is what is the situation envisaged in Rule 6(2).

2. When an output service is defined as any taxable service, how can a service provider 'provide output service which are chargeable to duty or tax as well as exempted services.' Can the legislation treat the exempted service as an output service (which is a taxable service) for the limited purpose of Rule 6(2) without having any sufficient explanation to the effect.

As you try to crack it during the weekend.