Service Tax -Online Information - Jurisdiction to LTU, Bangalore
YESTERDAY the Government issued a notification amending Notification No.20/2014-Service Tax, dated 16th September, 2014. The amendment reads as:
In the said notification, after the proviso, the following shall be inserted, namely:-
"Provided further that in case of online information and database access or retrieval services provided or agreed to be provided by a person located in non-taxable territory and received by a non-assessee online recipient, no officer specified in column (2) of the Table 3 and no officer subordinate to him, other than the officer specified in column (2) against S.No (23) of the said Table and all the officers subordinate to him, shall have the powers under Chapter-V of the Finance Act, 1994 (32 of 1994) and the rules made thereunder………"
What does this mean?
This means that the Principal Commissioner, Bangalore LTU will have exclusive jurisdiction with respect to online information and database access or retrieval services provided or agreed to be provided by a person located in non-taxable territory and received by a ‘non-assessee online recipient'.
All this is because - WITH a view to provide a level-playing field to Indian service providers providing taxable online information and database access or retrieval [OIDAR] services including electronic services in India, the exemption to such services provided in India by service providers located in foreign territory is being withdrawn with effect from December 1, 2016. Thus cross border business to consumer [B2C] OIDAR services provided by a foreign service provider to a person in India will become taxable from 1st December, 2016 onwards. Also see Circular No. 202/12/2016-Service Tax dated 09.11.2016 and .
Notification No , Dated: November 22, 2016