The provision of roaming
services do not require any human intervention and accordingly, cannot be
construed as technical services. Thus, payment of roaming charges by telephone
operator does not fall under the ambit of TDS provisions under section 194J.
The disputed issue was:
Whether sum paid by
telecom operator towards roaming facility provided by other telecom operators
would be liable to TDS either under section 194J or section 194C or section
194-I?
The Tribunal held as
under:
a)
Human intervention is required
only for installation, setting up, repairing, servicing, maintenance, capacity
augmentation of the network. When one of the subscribers in the assessee's
circle travels to the jurisdiction of another circle, the call gets connected
automatically without any human intervention and it is for this, the roaming
charges is paid by the assessee to the Visiting Operator for providing this
service. Hence payment of roaming charges cannot be construed as technical
services, thus, it does not fall under the ambit of TDS provisions u/s 194J.
b)
The word 'work' in section 194C
referred to and comprehends only the activities of workman. It is the physical
force which has comprehended in the word 'work'. Since the payment of roaming
charges does not require any human intervention. Hence, the provisions of
section 194C are not applicable to the impugned issue.
c) The
assessee cannot be said to have used the equipment which is involved in
providing the
