Customs refund barred where exemption was not claimed at assessment and the assessed Bill of Entry was never appealed.

An importer cannot seek refund of customs duty on the basis of an exemption notification if the exemption was not claimed at the time of Bill of Entry assessment and the assessed order was not appealed. The assessment order is appealable, and once it attains finality, its correctness cannot be challenged indirectly through refund proceedings. The merits of the exemption claim were not examined, because the refund claim was held not maintainable after the unchallenged assessment.

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Issues: Whether refund of customs duty could be claimed on the basis of exemption under Notification No. 11/97-Cus. when the benefit of the notification was not claimed at the time of filing the Bill of Entry and the assessment on the Bill of Entry was not challenged by appeal.

Analysis: The assessment made on the Bill of Entry is an appealable order. Where the importer does not claim the exemption at the time of assessment and does not challenge the assessed order in appeal, the assessment attains finality. In such a situation, the correctness of the assessment cannot later be questioned indirectly through a refund claim. The merits of the exemption claim were, therefore, not gone into.

Conclusion: The refund claim was not maintainable since the assessment was not appealed against; the objection based on the exemption notification could not be raised through refund proceedings.

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