Customs notification effectiveness depends on Official Gazette publication; completed self-assessment cannot be reopened on a later notification.

A delegated customs notification enhancing duty takes effect only on publication in the Official Gazette, and not merely from its issue date. Where a bill of entry had already been self-assessed at nil rate and out of charge was granted before publication, the applicable duty had crystallised under the Customs Act scheme. Section 25(4) could not override the express publication requirement in Section 25(1), and the later notification could not be used to reopen the completed assessment under Section 17(4). Reassessment on that basis was impermissible, so the post-clearance duty demand was set aside with consequential refund relief.

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Issues: Whether Notification No. 93/2017-Cus. enhancing customs duty could apply to a bill of entry that had already been assessed at nil rate and for which out of charge had been granted before the notification was published, and whether re-assessment under Section 17(4) of the Customs Act, 1962 was permissible.

Analysis: The applicable rate of duty was crystallised when the bill of entry was presented and assessed, read with the statutory scheme governing import assessment. The distinction between the date of issue and the time of publication of a delegated notification was held to be material, because exemption or withdrawal of exemption under Section 25(1) operates only through notification in the Official Gazette. Section 25(4) could not be read to override the express requirement of publication under Section 25(1). The reasoning in the Supreme Court decision in G. S. Chatha Rice Mills was applied to hold that delegated notifications enhancing or withdrawing exemption cannot be treated as effective before their gazette publication. On that basis, reassessment after completion of self-assessment and out of charge, relying on a later-published notification, was impermissible.

Conclusion: The notification did not apply to the importer's cleared goods before its publication, and the reassessment was unlawful.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded and the duty demand based on post-clearance reassessment was set aside with consequential refund relief.

Ratio Decidendi: A delegated customs notification enhancing or withdrawing exemption becomes effective only upon its publication in the Official Gazette, and it cannot retrospectively disturb a completed self-assessment and out of charge once the applicable rate has crystallised under the statutory scheme.

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