Project Import Classification requires a registered specific contract and project-specific auxiliary equipment for concessional customs treatment.

Project import assessment under Heading 98.01 requires a specific contract registered with Customs before clearance, and that condition is mandatory. General-purpose cranes, excavators, loaders, trucks, forklifts, generators and similar construction aids were treated as not project-specific auxiliary equipment for a specified project, because they were capable of wider use and were not shown to form part of the project unit. Where goods do not qualify under Heading 98.01, the linked exemption under Notification No. 72/85-Cus. cannot be sustained independently, so concessional treatment is unavailable.

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Issues: (i) Whether assessment under Heading 98.01 of the Customs Tariff could be claimed without a specific contract duly registered with the Customs House before clearance of the goods. (ii) Whether the imported cranes, excavators, shovel loaders, trucks, forklifts, generators and allied construction aids qualified as "auxiliary equipment" for a specified project under Heading 98.01. (iii) Whether the exemption claim under Notification No. 72/85-Cus. could survive if the goods were not classifiable under Heading 98.01.

Issue (i): Whether assessment under Heading 98.01 of the Customs Tariff could be claimed without a specific contract duly registered with the Customs House before clearance of the goods.

Analysis: Heading 98.01 and the Project Imports Regulations made registration of one or more specific contracts an essential condition for project import assessment. The goods were imported on the basis of equipment already available with the importer from an overseas project, but no specific contract covering the import was produced. The legal scheme treated registration of the contract before clearance as a mandatory requirement, and the absence of such a contract meant the basic eligibility condition was not satisfied.

Conclusion: The specific contract and its registration were held to be mandatory, and the claim under Heading 98.01 failed.

Issue (ii): Whether the imported cranes, excavators, shovel loaders, trucks, forklifts, generators and allied construction aids qualified as "auxiliary equipment" for a specified project under Heading 98.01.

Analysis: The expression "auxiliary equipment" was read in the context of goods required for the initial setting up or expansion of a specified industrial plant. The imported items were general-purpose erection and material-handling equipment capable of use in different projects and did not form part of the composite project unit. Since they were not project-specific and were not shown to be goods going into the setting up of the specified project in the relevant sense, they were outside the scope of the heading.

Conclusion: The imported goods were not treated as auxiliary equipment qualifying for Heading 98.01.

Issue (iii): Whether the exemption claim under Notification No. 72/85-Cus. could survive if the goods were not classifiable under Heading 98.01.

Analysis: The exemption notification was linked to the project import classification. Once the goods were found not to satisfy the conditions of Heading 98.01, the notification could not independently sustain the claimed concessional treatment.

Conclusion: The exemption claim also failed.

Final Conclusion: The import did not satisfy the statutory conditions for project import assessment, as the required specific contract was absent and the goods were not project-specific auxiliary equipment, so concessional duty was unavailable.

Ratio Decidendi: For project import assessment, a specific contract registered with Customs before clearance is indispensable, and only goods that are project-specific and required for the initial setting up or expansion of the specified project can qualify for concessional treatment.

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