Customs assessment of vessel tonnage: movable ship equipment was rightly included in light displacement tonnage without enhancing transaction value

The constant of a vessel, comprising spare anchor, spare tail shaft, spare propeller and machine tools, was treated as movable ship equipment classifiable with the vessel under Heading 89.08 for customs assessment. As the declared light displacement tonnage did not show that the constant was already included, its inclusion in the assessable base was held not to enhance the contractual transaction value. The assessment challenge therefore failed, and the constant was correctly taken into account in the vessel's light displacement tonnage.

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Issues: Whether the weight of the ship's constant was required to be included in the light displacement tonnage of the vessel for customs assessment and whether the transaction value could be said to have been unlawfully enhanced on that account.

Analysis: The vessel's declared LDT was not shown to have included the weight of the constant. The materials before the Tribunal indicated that the constant generally comprised spare anchor, spare tail shaft, spare propeller and machine tools, which are movable gears forming part of the vessel's normal equipment. Such items were treated as classifiable with the vessel under Heading 89.08 of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act for assessment purposes. Since the constant had not been taken into account in the declared assessable base, its inclusion for assessment did not amount to enhancement of the contractual transaction value.

Conclusion: The constant was rightly included in the vessel's LDT for assessment, and the challenge to the assessment failed.

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