ASIAN OILFIELD SERVICES, A COMPANY, INCORPORATED UNDER THE COMPANIES ACT, 1956 Vs. THE STATE OF TRIPURA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, Asian Oilfield Services is a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956. It entered into a contract with the respondent No.4, Jubilant Oil and Gas Private Limited whereby it agreed to provide 2D Seismic Data Acquisition & Basic Processing Services to Jubilant Oil and Gas Private Limited which is engaged in oil exploration in the State. The contract between the parties has been produced before this Court and the only question is whether the services being rendered by the petitioner company are in the nature of works contract or are pure and simple services. The other issue is whether the equipment which have been brought in by the petitioner for their own use to carry out the surveys has been transferred to Jubilant Oil and Gas Private Limited and there is any sale within the meaning of Section 2(25)(d) of the Tripura Value Added Tax Act, 2004 read with Rule 7(2) of the Tripura Value Added Tax Rules, 2005 and exigible to tax under Section 4(2) of the Tripura Value Added Tax Act, 2004.

(2.) At this stage it would be pertinent to refer Article 366(29A) of the Constitution of India which reads as follows:

(3.) The case of the State is that since a tax on the sale or purchase of goods includes in terms of sub-clause (d) of Article 366(29A) tax on the transfer of the right to use any goods for any purpose the petitioners are liable to pay value added tax on such transfer of right to use goods. The contention of the petitioners is that they have entered into a service contract and only the Union can levy tax on services and not the State. The petitioners have also urged that they are paying service tax to the Central Government under the provisions of law and since they are paying service tax, if there is conflict between the Central Law and the State Act the Tripura Value Added Tax Act must necessarily give way to the provisions which provide for imposition of service tax in the Finance Act of 1994.