No ST on broadcasting rights sold by Indian re-seller if broadcasting & telecasting would be outside India

Case Details: Sporty Solutionz (P.) Ltd. v. Commissioner, Central Goods and Service Tax - [2021] 132 taxmann.com 263 (Allahabad - CESTAT)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • Anil Choudhary, Judicial Member and P. Anjani Kumar, Technical Member
  • Abhinav Kalra, CA for the Appellant. 
  • Gyanendra Kumar Tripathi, AR for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

The appellant acquired telecast rights for broadcasting cricket matches played in Zimbabwe and telecast in Bangladesh. Such rights were re-sold to another party by the appellant. The department demanded service tax on the ground that appellant was liable to pay service tax under reverse charge on import of service of acquiring such rights from persons located outside India as recipient of services. Accordingly, the demand was confirmed along with interest and penalty. The appellant preferred appeals before the Commissioner (Appeals) and it was rejected. It filed appeal before the CESTAT.

CESTAT Held

The Honorable CESTAT observed that no services were provided or consumed within the taxable territory of India. The telecast rights were procured for broadcasting of the sports event, held outside the taxable territory of India. The place of provision of service for sporting event would be the place where the event would be actually held and in this case, the same was outside India. Thus, it was held that the demand would be liable to be set aside.