Delhi High Court today directed the central excise intelligence to refund the service tax collected from travel portals, Ibibo, MakeMyTrip and Ebiz, saying the payment made by them “was not voluntary but under coercion and duress”.
The bench of justices S Muralidhar and Vibhu Bakhru asked the Director General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) to refund the amount within four weeks, failing which, the department will have to return the amount with a simple interest of 6 percent per annum.
In a stern order, the court also directed DGCEI to pay costs of Rs 1 lakh to each of the three companies, also within four weeks.
Calling the arrest of a senior official each from MakeMyTrip (MMT) and Ebiz as “unwarranted”, the court said that the department’s action did not follow the lawful procedure.
The order came on the pleas of the three companies challenging the action taken against them by DGCEI which had accused them of evading service tax to the tune of several crore rupees.
Makemytrip and Ibibo had in their pleas also questioned the powers of DGCEI of arrest, investigation and assessment of service tax under the provisions of the Finance Act, 1994.
(Source: PTI)
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