Notification 12/2003-ST

Nexus, Not Gross Value: CESTAT Strips Hostel, Mess and Study-Material Fees Out of Commercial Coaching Service Tax

A coaching institute billed tuition, hostel, mess and study-material fees separately for over a decade. The department taxed the lot as one bundle. CESTAT Hyderabad's Final Order works through nine appeals to hold that only what has a real nexus with coaching can be taxed as commercial coaching service — and that repeating a demand the department has already litigated cannot be dressed up as suppression.