Licensing control for used digital multifunction printers upheld, with redemption fine and penalty sustained for post-amendment imports.

Import of old and used digital multifunction printers and devices after the 28.02.2013 Foreign Trade Policy amendment required a licence, and import without such licence amounted to a policy violation. The Tribunal followed settled precedent that such post-amendment imports are subject to licensing control. As the appellants had not obtained the required licence, the redemption fine and penalties were upheld, and the challenge was confined to those consequential measures.

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Issues: Whether the import of old and used digital multifunction printers and devices after the amendment to the Foreign Trade Policy on 28.02.2013, without obtaining the required licence, justified the imposition of redemption fine and penalty.

Analysis: The import was made after the policy amendment that made such goods importable only on obtaining a licence. The appellants had not obtained any licence for the impugned imports. The issue had already been settled by the Madras High Court and followed by the Tribunal in later decisions, which held that imports of such goods after the amendment were subject to licensing control. In that situation, the challenge was confined to redemption fine and penalty, and no infirmity was found in the orders imposing them.

Conclusion: The import was in violation of the Foreign Trade Policy, and the redemption fine and penalties were rightly imposed.

Final Conclusion: The appeals failed and the impugned orders were sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where goods become licensable under an amended import policy, import after the amendment without the required licence constitutes a policy violation warranting consequential redemption fine and penalty.

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