The Supreme Court on February 28 held in the case of Commissioner of Service Tax versus Inox Leisure Ltd. that no case was made out to interfere with the order passed by the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) as it had taken an absolutely correct view. The CESTAT had held that as Inox was screening films on revenue-sharing basis, it was not liable to pay service tax on the payments made to the distributors for screening their films. The Revenue filed an appeal which was dismissed by the apex court.
The Revenue alleged that Inox was providing infrastructure support services to the producers/distributors of films under Business Support Services and the same was taxable.
The apex court order was pronounced by Justices M.R. Shah and B.V. Nagarathna.