22 November 2012
Fundamentally there is a difference between Negative List of services and Exempted List of services. First, services in the Negative List are not chargeable at all as they are excluded from Section 66B. Services in the exemption list are chargeable but exempted.
Second, services which are in the Negative List can be altered only in the Budget since the Negative List is part of the law which can be changed only with the approval of Parliament . The Exemption List can be altered by the Executive, that is, by the finance minister. Third, services in the Negative List should ideally be of general and permanent nature which need not be changed every now and then. But services in the Exemption List are of such nature which are of temporary nature and therefore cannot be withdrawn or given any time by the ministry. Such an instrument is necessary only for cases where suddenly an exemption is necessary.