ORDER
K.K. Agarwal, Member (T)
1. The appellants in this case are registered as cargo handling service provider under Section 69 of the Finance Act, 1994. They were issued a show cause notice seeking to deny service tax credit taken by them during the period October 2002 to March 2003 amounting to Rs. 74,609/- (Seventy Four Thousand Six Hundred Nine Only) on the ground that the service tax paid by the inputs service provider was of steamer agent service and since cargo handling services and the steamer agent service do not fall in the same Sub-clause of Clause 90 of Section 65 of the Act, the same was not admissible to them.
2. The learned advocate for the appellants submitted that the nature of services provided by the inputs service provider included for providing output services to its clients comprise of supply of labour and deployment of staff on overtime basis, supply of storage space for cargo, supply of forklifts, wheel loaders/excavators for handling of cargo, supply of services relating to wharfage licences etc. and supply of services for customs related maters. Input service provider was initially registered as a Steamer agent but later on they have applied for registration in the year 2004 for port services and cargo handling services also and since nature of services provided by them to the appellants was same as that of cargo handling services the input credit should not have been denied to them. They accordingly pleaded that they have a prima facie case in their favour and the pre-deposit of the entire amount should be waived before hearing final hearing.
3. I have considered the submissions. I find that it is an admitted fact that the input service provider was registered as a steamer agent and receiver of the output service is registered as a cargo handling services and these two services do not fall in the same sub-clause of Clause 90 of Section 65 and therefore the credit was clearly inadmissible to them in view of the Provision of Rule 3(2) of the Service Tax Credit Rules, 2002. I, accordingly do not find any prima facie case in favour of the appellants. No financial hardship has been pleaded. I, accordingly, reject the stay application and direct them to pre-deposit the full amount of credit amounting to Rs. 74,609/- within six weeks from today and report compliance on 03.07.2006. On non-compliance by the out date the appeal shall stand dismiss without further notice.
(Pronounced in Court)