India Service Tax on advice, consultancy or technical assistance provided in the field of law

As the Hon’ble Members are aware, services provided by chartered accountants, cost accountants, and company secretaries as well as by engineering and management consultants are presently charged to service tax. Although there is a school of thought that legal consultants do not provide any service to their client, I hold my distinguished predecessor in high esteem and disagree! As such, I propose to extend service tax on advice, consultancy or technical assistance provided in the field of law. This tax would not be applicable in case the service provider or the service receiver is an individual.