In Brief
HT Media organized annual Leadership Summits featuring international speakers like Tony Blair and Al Gore, booking them through speaker agents. The revenue demanded service tax on speaker fees under "event management service." The Supreme Court allowed the appeals and held that booking speakers through agents is not event management service. Event management involves planning, organizing, and promoting an event (e.g., managing venue, decoration, sound, tickets). Booking speakers is a separate activity—merely ensuring speaker participation, even if essential to the event, does not constitute managing the event itself. The service cannot be classified under event management and remains untaxed.
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