New Delhi, Aug. 1 :    New Delhi, Aug. 1:  The government today clarified that it had not exempted life insurance agents, actuaries and assessors from paying service tax but merely let insurance companies off the hook. Today's clarification which also notified imposition of service tax on some 10 sectors from August 16 this year, said, 'Life insurance service has been exempted from the levy of service tax ... services provided by life insurance companies to policy holders in relation to life insurance business will not be liable to tax. 'However auxiliary insurance services relating to life insurance business will be liable to service tax including services provided by insurance agents to insurer or policy holder, by actuary to the insurer or by an intermediary like surveyors and loss assessors.' This obviously means that earnings by these individuals will be liable to pay service tax at the rate of 5 per cent. The note also clarified that in the case of life insurance agents, companies who appoint these agents will be liable to pay service tax and comply with all procedural formalities. Other sectors liable to pay service tax are cargo handling service, storage and warehousing services, event management, rail travel agents, health and fitness centres, beauty treatment services, fashion designers, bale operators and dry cleaners. However in case of cargo handlers, services provided for handling farm produce meant for cold storage has been exempted. Farm produce and cold storage already stand excluded from the scope of the levy under the category of storage and warehousing service. The scope of banking and other financial services has been extended to include all corporate bodies providing banking and financial services in the tax net. So far, only a few specified service providers were liable to pay service tax under this category.