Goods
and
Services
Tax
(GST)
and
Central
Excise
official
(Chennai
South)
has
reiterated
that
the
music
composer
A
R
Rahman
was
issued
a
demand
notice
towards
arrears
of
Rs.
6.79
Crore
service
tax
and
penalized
for
another
Rs.
6.79
Crore
only
based
on
evidence.
The
Commissioner
of
Goods
and
Services
Tax
(GST)
and
Central
Excise,
in
a
counter-affidavit
filed
before
the
Madras
High
Court
recently,
denied
the
allegation
that
levying
the
service
tax
and
penalising
the
composer
was
not
an
attempt
to
tarnish
his
image,
according
to
a
report
in
The
Hindu.
In
October
2019,
AR
Rahman
was
issued
notices
of
evading
payment
of
service
tax
of
Rs.
6.79
Crore
between
April
2013
and
June
2017
and
was
also
penalized
to
a
tune
of
Rs
6.79
Crore
by
the
tax
officials.
Later,
in
February
2020,
Rahman
filed
a
writ
petition
challenging
the
tax
demand
with
the
Madras
High
Court
which
granted
an
interim
stay
on
the
proceedings
by
the
tax
officials.
The
Commissioner
claimed
that
he
had
demanded
the
arrears
of
service
tax
and
imposed
a
penalty
only
after
being
convinced
that
the
entire
bouquet
of
services
offered
by
Rahman
to
the
film
producers
was
liable
to
be
taxed
and
proceedings
were
initiated
based
on
intelligence
gathered
by
the
Directorate-General
of
GST
Intelligence.
Instead
of
just
sharing
the
musical
notations
with
the
film
producers
the
composer
composed
the
music
and
recorded
it
by
engaging
the
services
of
lyricists,
singers,
instrumentalists,
and
technicians
and
all
such
activities
constitute
a
service
defined
under
Section
65B
(44)
read
with
Section
65B
(51)
of
the
Finance
Act
of
1994
according
to
which
one
is
liable
to
pay
service
tax,
the
counter-affidavit
filed
by
the
Commissioner
stated.
The
tax
official
requested
the
court
to
vacate
the
interim
stay
on
the
proceedings
granted
in
February
2022.