Customs notification effective only on public publication; tariff value could not be applied to earlier imports.

A customs notification fixing tariff value becomes operative only when it is duly published and made available to the public in the Official Gazette; it cannot be applied retrospectively merely because it bears an earlier date. As the notification dated 03.08.2001 was shown to have been available only on 06.08.2001, imports made on 03.08.2001 and 04.08.2001 could not be reassessed on that basis. The demand founded on that notification was therefore unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the tariff value fixed by Notification No. 36/2001-Cus. (N.T.) dated 03.08.2001 could be applied to consignments imported on 03.08.2001 and 04.08.2001, when the notification was made available to the public only on 06.08.2001.

Analysis: The demand arose from reassessment of the imported goods on the basis of the tariff value fixed under the notification issued under the Customs Act. The decisive question was the date on which the notification became effective. The record showed that the notification dated 03.08.2001 was not made available for public sale in the Official Gazette on that date and, on the material placed, publication occurred only on 06.08.2001. A notification affecting duty liability cannot operate retrospectively merely from the date printed on it when the statutory publication requirement is not met. The principle was treated as settled by the earlier decision dealing with the same notification.

Conclusion: The notification could not be applied to imports made before its publication on 06.08.2001, and the demand based on that notification was unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: A customs notification fixing tariff value becomes operative only from the date on which it is duly published and made available to the public in the Official Gazette, and it cannot be retrospectively applied to imports made before that effective date.

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