Kirpal, J. - (1.) The petitioners in these cases are the persons who are utilising the services of goods transport operators and of clearing and forwarding agents and are seeking to impugn the validity of Rule 2(xii) and (xvii) of the Service Tax Rules, as amended in 1997, on the ground that the said sub-rules are contrary to the provisions of Sections 65 and 66 of the Finance Act, 1994, whereby service tax was sought to be levied by the Parliament.
(2.) A brief legislative history is that service tax was, for the first time, imposed by the Finance Act, 1994. This tax was proposed on three type of services which were rendered. By the Finance Act, 1997 the Legislature sought to cast the net much wider. It amended certain provisions in the Act and, thereafter rules which had originally been framed in 1994 were also amended.
(3.) By Chapter V of the Finance Act, as amended by the Finance Act, 1997 service tax is imposed in relation to the taxable services which are provided. Section 65 is the definition section. Some of the sub-clauses which are relevant for our purpose read as under: "65. (5). "Assessee" means a person responsible for collecting the service tax and includes his agent;" (17) "goods transport operator" means any commercial concern engaged in the transportation of goods but does not include a courier agency; (28) "person responsible for collecting the service tax" means a person who is required to collect service tax under this Chapter or is required to pay any other sum of money under this Chapter and includes every person in respect of whom any proceedings under this Chapter have been taken; (34) "service tax" means tax chargeable under the provisions of this Chapter; (41) "taxable service" means any service provided, (a) to an investor, by a stock-broker in connection with the sale or purchase of securities listed on a recognised stock exchange; (b) to a subscriber, by the telegraph authority in relation to a telephone connection; (c) to a subscriber, by the telegraph authority in relation to a pager; (d) to a policy holder, by, an insurer carrying on general insurance business in relation to general insurance business; (e) to a client, by an advertising agency in relation to advertisement in any manner; (f) to a customer, by a courier agency in relation to door-to-door transportation of time-sensitive documents, goods or articles; (g) to a client, by an consulting engineer in relation to advice, consultancy or technical assistance in any manner in one or more discipline of engineering; (h) to a client, by a custom house agent in relation to the entry or departure of conveyances or the import or export of goods; (i) to a shipping line, by a steamer agent in relation to a ship's husbandry or dispatch or any administrative work related thereto as well as the booking, advertising or canvassing of cargo, including container feeder services; (j) to a client, by a clearing and forwarding agent in relation to a clearing and forwarding operations in any manner; (k) to a client, by manpower recruitment agency in relation to the recruitment of manpower in any manner; (l) to a customer, by an air travel agent in relation to the booking of passage for travel by air; (m) to a customer, by a goods transport operator in relation to carriage of goods by road in a goods carriage; (n) to a client, by an outdoor caterer; (o) to a client, by a pandal or shamiana contractor in relation to a pandal or shamiana in any manner and also includes the services, if any, rendered as a caterer; (p) to a client, by a mandap keeper in relation to the use of a mandap in any manner including the facilities provided to the client in relation to such use and also the services, if any, rendered as a caterer; (q) to any person, by a tour-operator in relation to a tour; (r) to any person, by a rent a cab scheme operator in relation to the renting of a cab; ;