Customs refund for excess duty follows misapplied tariff rate, and omission to cite the refund provision does not defeat relief.

Customs duty collected at a higher rate was refundable where the applicable export rate was governed by the statutory scheme and the excess collection resulted from error or misconstruction of that scheme. On the facts, the legally payable duty was only the reduced rate in force when the vessel arrived and outward entry was made, so the excess fell within the refund provision. Relief was not denied because the claim did not expressly cite that provision, since the necessary facts were pleaded. The availability of an alternative revision remedy did not bar writ relief where the customs orders rested on an erroneous statutory interpretation and caused manifest injustice.

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Issues: (i) whether the exporter was entitled to refund of customs duty paid at the higher rate under section 40 of the Sea Customs Act, 1878 because the duty had been levied through error or misconstruction of the statutory scheme; (ii) whether relief could be refused on the ground that the refund claim did not expressly invoke section 40 or because an alternative revision remedy existed under the Sea Customs Act, 1878.

Issue (i): Whether the exporter was entitled to refund of customs duty paid at the higher rate under section 40 of the Sea Customs Act, 1878 because the duty had been levied through error or misconstruction of the statutory scheme.

Analysis: The applicable rate of export duty was governed by section 38 of the Sea Customs Act, 1878, under which the relevant rate was the one in force when the shipping bill was delivered in the circumstances contemplated by that section. On the facts, although duty had initially been debited at the higher rate, the goods were ultimately shipped under the substituted shipping bills and the legally payable duty was only at the reduced rate prevailing when the vessel arrived and the order for outward entry was made. The excess collection therefore arose from error or misconstruction, bringing the claim within section 40.

Conclusion: The exporter was entitled to refund of the excess duty paid at the higher rate, and the claim was rightly treated as falling within section 40.

Issue (ii): Whether relief could be refused on the ground that the refund claim did not expressly invoke section 40 or because an alternative revision remedy existed under the Sea Customs Act, 1878.

Analysis: The material facts necessary to attract section 40 were pleaded, and a wrong or incomplete reference to the statutory provision did not defeat a claim otherwise supported by the facts. The existence of a revision remedy under section 191 did not bar the writ court from granting relief, particularly where the impugned customs orders were found to rest on an erroneous interpretation of the statute and to have caused manifest injustice.

Conclusion: Relief was not barred by the omission to cite section 40 expressly or by the availability of an alternative revision remedy.

Final Conclusion: The customs appeal failed, and the order directing refund in favour of the exporter was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where customs duty has been collected in excess because the statute was misconstrued as to the applicable rate, refund is payable under the statutory refund provision even if the claim does not cite that provision expressly, and the existence of an alternative statutory remedy does not automatically preclude writ relief.

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