ORDER
Jyoti Balasundaram, Vice-President
1. The applications for waiver of pre-deposit of service tax of Rs. 8,24,591/- and penalty of equivalent amount under the provisions of Section 76 and Section 78 of the Finance Act, 1994 and penalty of Rs. 1,000/- under Section 77 of the Finance Act, 1994 (in ST/S/690/06) and service tax of Rs. 3,46,426/- together with penalty of equivalent amount under Sections 76 and 78 of the Finance Act, 1994 and Rs. 1,000/-under Section 77 of the Finance Act, 1994 (in ST/S/691/07) are heard together.
2. Service tax has been confirmed under the provisions of Section 65(12) on the ground that the applicants were rendering banking and other financial services by renting storage tank for gases sold by them to their customer.
3. On hearing both sides, we find that prima facie case for total waiver has been made out on the submission that the applicants herein are not covered under Section 65(12) as they are neither banking company nor financial institution including a non-banking financial company, or any other body corporate which is to be read “ejusdem generis” with the earlier clauses as held by the Tribunal in the case of Pepsico India Holdings Pvt. Ltd. v. C.C.E, Pondicherry reported in 2007 (6) S.T.R. 266 (Tri.-Chennai). We, therefore waive pre-deposit of the service tax and penalty as set out above and stay recovery thereof pending the appeals.
(Dictated in Court)