Refund svc tax paid by 3 travel portals: HC asks excise dept

New Delhi, Sep 1 (PTI) Delhi High Court today directedthe central excise intelligence to refund the service taxcollected from travel portals, Ibibo, Makemytrip and Ebiz,saying the payment made by them "was not voluntary but undercoercion and duress". Asking the Director General of Central ExciseIntelligence (DGCEI) to refund the amount within four weeks, abench of justices S Muralidhar and Vibhu Bakhru also pulled itup for "unwarranted" arrest of a senior official each fromMakemytrip (MMT) and Ebiz, saying the action by the departmentwas without following the procedure laid down under the law. In a stern order, the court also directed DGCEI to paycosts of Rs one lakh to each of the three companies withinfour weeks. It made it clear that any delay over weeks in refundingthe service tax amount would "make DGCEI liable to pay simpleinterest at six per cent per annum on the said amount from thedate on which it becomes due in the of this order till thedate of payment". The order came on the pleas of the three companieschallenging the action taken against them by DGCEI which hadaccused them of evading service tax to the tune of severalcrore rupees. Makemytrip and Ibibo had in their pleas also questionedthe powers of DGCEI of arrest, investigation and assessment ofservice tax under the provisions of the Finance Act, 1994. PTIHMP ABA PPS RRTARC