New Delhi, June 7: The government has issued guidelines for levy of service tax on custom house agents and steamer agents which will come into effect from June 15. The service tax will be levied at the rate of 5 per cent on the gross service charge and will be collected and enforced by the central excise commissionerates within their jurisdiction.

It was further specified that the person responsible for collection of service tax will be the custom house agent or the steamer agent in respect of the services rendered by them.

The value of the taxable service in case of custom house agents will be only the service and attendancy charges/fee/commission charged to the customer. Expenses incurred by custom house agents by way of statutory levies or port dues or other charges on behalf of the client and reimbursed by the client will not form part of the taxable value.

In the case of turnkey projects undertaken by custom house agents, wherein a lumpsum amount is charged by the agent without breakup of expenses and service charges, 15 per cent of the amount will be taken as the value of the taxable service and service tax will be charged accordingly.

In case of steamer agents, the value of the taxable service will be only the husbandry fee and commission on import or export cargo charged to the shipping line. Expenses incurred by the steamer agent by way of statutory levies or port dues or other charges on behalf of the client and reimbursed by the client will not form part of the taxable value.

Only those offices of custom house agents which raise the bills on the client need to be registered. Branch/sales offices which do not raise any bill on the client need not be registered. In the case of steamer agents, only sea port offices which raise the bills on the shipping lines need to be registered. The offices which are registered will comply with all statutory formalities relating to service tax not only in respect of their own office but also in respect of their branches.

As far as the mode of payment is concerned, service tax collected during a month will be remitted to the government account by the 15th of the following month. If the person responsible for collecting the service tax fails to collect the tax for the service rendered, shall be liable, inspite of such failure to pay the service tax within 75 days from the close of the month in which the service was rendered.

It was also specified that the private accounts maintained by the custom house agents and steamer agents will be accepted. In the case of custom house agents assessment of the tax will be based on the import or export documents handled by the custom house agent and the bills raised thereon.

In the case of steamer agents, the assessment will be based on the bills raised per voyage basis. Copies of these documents will be furnished to the department along with the quarterly returns submitted to the central excise department. The modalities of levying the service tax was decided by the finance ministry in consultation with the associations representing custom house agents and steamer agents. This was done in pursuance of the promise of finance minister P Chidambaram that the tax would be introduced only after consultations with representative bodies.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.