Who is an “Input Service Distributor”?  

An office of the manufacturer or provider of output service who receives invoices for the procurement of input services and issues invoices for the purpose of distributing the credit of Service Tax paid to such manufacturer or provider of output service is an “Input Service Distributor”.

The credit of the tax amount so distributed to various places shall not exceed the total Service Tax amount contained in the original invoice/bill.

Answered by Vipan Thapar at 9:18 PM on October 08, 2008

Registration of each premises as “Input Service Distributor” was the only way Cenvat credit of the input services received by the other locations despite the fact that the assessee has centralized registration for the purpose of providing output services.

But, now the legislature has removed the above anomaly and single centralized registration would be sufficient for the purpose of payment of service tax from the one centralized location of the assessee and for the purpose of availing Cenvat credit at its centralized location against the input services received at its other location.

Answered by Seema at 5:02 PM on October 04, 2008

An ‘input service distributor’ is an office or establishment of a manufacturer of excisable goods or provider of taxable service. It receives tax paid invoices/bills of input services procured (on which CENVAT credits can be taken) and distributes such credits to its units providing taxable services or manufacturing excisable goods. The distribution of credit is subject to the conditions that,- (a) the credit distributed against an eligible document shall not exceed the amount of service tax paid thereon, and (b) credit of service tax attributable to services used in a unit either exclusively manufacturing exempted goods or exclusively providing exempted services shall not be distributed. An input service distributor is required (under section 69 of the Act, read with notification no.26/2005-ST) to take a separate registration.

For more detail-
http://www.servicetax.gov. in/circular/st-circular07/st_circ_9 7-2k7.htm

Answered by Nagendra at 9:55 PM on October 03, 2008

An office of the manufacturer or provider of output service who receives invoices for the procurement of input services and issues invoices for the purpose of distributing the credit of Service Tax paid to such manufacturer or provider of output service is an “Input Service Distributor”.

The credit of the tax amount so distributed to various places shall not exceed the total Service Tax amount contained in the original invoice/bill.

Answered by Om Prakash at 7:21 PM on October 03, 2008