I am working for a software company located abroad. It has no establishment in India. I am a contractor for that company, not an employee. For my services, I am paid in US dollars, which gets converted into rupees when the inward remittance is received. On behalf of that company I deliver services to its clients across the globe including India, to reputed companies. Am I required to pay service tax?

What service you provide is not clear and so, it is difficult to give you a categorical reply. But generally, service tax is leviable on services provided within the taxable territory (i.e. in India, except the state of Jammu and Kashmir). The Place of Provision of Services Rules, 2012 helps you determine whether the services are provided within the taxable territory. The general provision is given at Rule 3 of the said Rules and it says that the place of provision of a service shall be the location of the recipient of service. So, where receivers of your services are located in the taxable territory, service tax is payable. However, where the service receivers are located abroad, you may examine what the place of provision of your service is as per the said Rules and determine the obligation to pay service tax. It will depend on the nature of your service.

We hold ISO 9000 quality recognition and we have claimed double weightage for our exports in our application for recognition as an Export House. However, our recognition has not been granted on the grounds that we have not got the ISO quality recognition from an agency mentioned in Appendix 2-I of the Handbook of Procedures, Vol. 1 (HB-

As per Para 3.22 (a) (ii) of Foreign Trade Policy (FTP), double weightage is available for exports of manufacturing units having ISO/BIS. It does not say from whom you should have got your ISO recognition. However, Para 2.90 of HB-1 says that the list of agencies authorised to grant quality certification is given in Appendix-2-I and for ISO 9000 (Series) and for ISO 14000 (Series), agencies accredited with the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) under the Quality Council of India shall be deemed to be authorised under this Policy, and that the list of such accredited agencies is available on the web site www.qcin.org and also provided under

We had purchased duty credit scrips issued under the Focus Product Scheme from the market but the Customs says that it is not valid, as it has been cancelled. We have no idea about its cancellation. The seller of the scrip is unwilling to take it back, as it is cancelled. What can we do?
On almost identical facts, the Gujarat High Court has held in the case of H. Kumar Gems Inc [2015 (323) ELT 142 (Guj)] that in the absence of a public notice regarding cancellation, utilisation cannot be denied unless the cancellation endorsement has been made on the licence.