Appellate Tribunal rules on re-rollable scrap import case, sets aside penalty and confiscation.

The Appellate Tribunal CESTAT CHENNAI ruled in favor of the importers, setting aside the confiscation and penalty imposed on 're-rollable scrap' due to non-production of Pre-shipment Inspection Certificate. The tribunal cited a High Court decision stating that lack of certificate may require 100% inspection but does not constitute improper import under Customs Act, 1962. The goods were inspected and found free of prohibited items. The appeal was allowed.

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Issues: Whether confiscation of imported goods and the consequential penalty were sustainable merely because the importer did not produce a pre-shipment inspection certificate, when the goods were examined and found not to contain prohibited articles.

Analysis: The goods were inspected and were not found to contain any serviceable articles or arms and ammunitions. The absence of a pre-shipment inspection certificate, by itself, was held not to amount to improper import of goods within the meaning of Section 111 of the Customs Act, 1962. The reasoning of the cited High Court decision was applied to hold that non-compliance with the certificate condition could at most result in inspection, not confiscation, where the goods themselves were not prohibited.

Conclusion: The confiscation and penalty were not sustainable and were set aside, and the appeal was allowed.

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