MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to has been directed to approach the Supreme Court to determine whether service tax can be levied for services rendered by the cricket board following agreements signed with MSM Satellite (Singapore) Pte Ltd and World Sport Group (India) Pvt Ltd in 2008 and 2009.
Hearing an appeal filed by BCCI challenging a common order passed by the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) regarding telecast of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches, a division bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Jitendra Jain from the Bombay High Court siad: “In our view, the present appeals raise an issue on the taxability of the services in question, hence these appeals are not maintainable before this court. The remedy of the appellant (BCCI) would be to approach the Supreme Court by filing an appeal under Section 35 of the Central Excise Act, 1994.”
The tribunal, by a common order, had rejected four appeals filed by BCCI and confirmed the order of the Assessing Officer (AO), a report in Free Press Journal said.
The AO had raised a demand for payment of service tax from the BCCI. The tax was sought to be levied on the agreements signed by BCCI awarding media rights to MSM Satellite (Singapore) and World Sport Group (India) on January 21, 2008 and March 25, 2009
The AO issued show cause notices for the relevant periods being financial years 2007-08, 2008-09, 2010-11 and 2011-12, classifying the assessee as a ‘Franchisee’ within the meaning of Section 65 (47) of Chapter V of the Finance Act, 1994 in relation to services rendered by it to MSM Satellite (Singapore), which were in respect of telecast of IPL matches being played on the Indian soil.
The high court noted that the record revealed that the issue before the tribunal was in regard to the taxability of the said services, as BCCI contended that the services, which were to be provided as per the agreements, were transactions of “export of service”, falling within the purview of Export of Services Rules, 2005. Hence, the service tax cannot be levied on the same, the rpeort said.
The CESTAT did not agree with BCCI’s contentions that such services were not taxable. It held that the transaction was not a transaction of export of service. The BCCI challenged the CESTAT’s order before the high court, the report added.
