Selective vs. comprehensive coverage :
Depending on the socio-economic compulsions, each country evolved a taxation system on services adopting either a comprehensive approach or a selective approach. In comprehensive approach all services are made taxable and a negative list is provided to exempt some of the services. In selective approach, selective services are subjected to service tax. While most of the developed countries, tax is levied on all the services with very few and limited exemptions.
India began its journey of taxation of services on July 1, 1994 with a selective approach for taxation of services. The first year had very modest collections of Rs 407 crore.
After appearing largely as just-another-tax for the first 8 years, with collections touching Rs 3,302 crore in 2001-02, service tax took some giant leaps in the next 7 years, both on the back of wider coverage as well as increase in tax rate, reaching Rs 60,941 crore in 2008-09. Next two years saw the growth somewhat moderating with collections reaching Rs 70,896 crore in 2010-11.
The buoyancy began once again on the back of some policy initiatives and service tax contributed Rs 97,444 crore during 2011-12, an increase of nearly 37% over the previous year.
While the revenue expectations were often exceeded in all these years the administrative challenge began to assume unmanageable proportions. The newer additions to the list of services often raised issues of overlaps with the previously existing services, confounding both sides as to whether some activities were taxed for the first time or were already covered under an earlier, even if a little less specific head.
There was also a near unanimity across a wide section of thinkers that potential of service tax remained huge and largely untapped. Part of the problem identified was the lack of comprehensive taxation of services, not so much in the lack of coverage but more on account of lack of clarity and significant gaps in existing definitions, exposing the tax collection process to avoidable leakages and litigation.
Budget 2012 ushered a new system of taxation of services; popularly known as Negative List effective from 01.07.2012. There was a paradigm shift from the earlier system where only services of specified descriptions were subjected to tax. In the new system all services, except those specified in the negative list, are subject to taxation.