"CAG being a constitutional authority cannot be considered as a concern in the same manner as a firm of chartered accountants," the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said in a circular.
The Board has issued the circular in view of the doubts expressed as to whether service tax is leviable on the audit fees collected by the CAG for conducting audit of corporations.
The circular comes within weeks of the chief commissioner of service tax writing to tax officials that, "CAG was not discharging its service tax liability all over India against the services provided by them and had defaulted Rs 33 lakh of tax."
Presently 12 per cent tax is levied on services provided by chartered accountants and business support service provided by consultancy firms.
The circular clarified that CAG's auditing work cannot be compared with the services provided by a practicing chartered accountant.
"CAG is a constitutional authority and by no stretch of imagination be covered by the meaning of expression ... appearing in the definition of 'practicing chartered accountant'," it said. MORE
