Service Tax -'online information and database access' not Telecom Service
RULE 2(q) of the Place of Provision of Services Rules, 2012, reads as
(q) "telecommunication service" means service of any description (including electronic mail, voice mail, data services, audio text services, video text services, radio paging and cellular mobile telephone services) which is made available to users by means of any transmission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature, by wire, radio, visual or other electro-magnetic means but shall not include broadcasting services.
This is now amended to read as (q) "telecommunication service" means service of any description (including electronic mail, voice mail, data services, audio text services, video text services, radio paging and cellular mobile telephone services) which is made available to users by means of any transmission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature, by wire, radio, visual or other electro-magnetic means but shall not include broadcasting and online information and database access or retrieval services.
'Online information and database access or retrieval' is no more a telecom service.
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in India, the exemption to such services provided in India by service providers located in foreign territory is being withdrawn w.e.f 1st December, 2016.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. [Source - CBEC Press Release dated 11.11.16]
Today is the 1st December, 2016.
Notification No. , Dated November 30, 2016