Transaction value under customs valuation cannot be rejected merely because a manufacturer's price list shows a higher price.

Imported goods must ordinarily be valued at the price actually paid or payable under Rule 4 of the Customs Valuation Rules, 1988, and the declared transaction value cannot be rejected merely because it is lower than the manufacturer's price list. A higher price list is only a general quotation and, without a recognised exception or other valid basis under the rule, does not justify substitution of the invoice value. On the facts recorded, the department relied only on the price list and did not establish any exception to acceptance of the declared price, so the importer's transaction value had to be accepted.

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Issues: Whether the assessable value of imported goods could be rejected merely on the basis of the manufacturer's price list and whether the transaction value declared by the importer was liable to be substituted under Rule 4 of the Customs Valuation Rules, 1988.

Analysis: The department relied principally on the existence of a higher manufacturer's price list and did not establish any basis in the notice for discarding the declared invoice value apart from that price list. The imported goods had been supplied at varying prices, and the record showed that different buyers, including the appellant at different times, had paid different prices for the same products. In these circumstances, the price list could not by itself displace the declared transaction value. Under Rule 4 of the Customs Valuation Rules, 1988, the assessable value must ordinarily be the price actually paid or payable, unless the case falls within the specified exceptions in the proviso to sub-rule (2). No such exception was shown to apply.

Conclusion: The declared transaction value had to be accepted and could not be rejected merely because it was lower than the manufacturer's price list.

Ratio Decidendi: A price list is only a general quotation and, by itself, is not a valid ground for rejecting transaction value under Rule 4 of the Customs Valuation Rules, 1988 unless a recognised exception to acceptance of the declared price is established.

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