NO ST on CHIT

ST : Notification No.26/2012-ST dated 20-6-2012 quashed

ST : In a chit business, the subscription is tendered in any one of the forms of 'money' as defined in section 65B(33). It would, therefore, be a transaction in money. So considered, the transaction would fall within the exclusionary part of the definition of the word 'service' as being merely a transaction in money. This would be the result if the argument that the exclusionary part of the definition in clause (a) of section 65B(44) is considered to have been enacted ex abundant cautela; if the argument based on Explanation 2 to section 65B(44) read with the exclusionary part of the definition is accepted as correct, even then the services rendered by the foreman of the chit business for which a separate consideration is charged, not being an activity of the nature explained in the said Explanation, would be out of the clutches of the definition. Either way, there can be no levy of service tax on the footing that the services of a foreman of a chit business constitute a taxable service