Retrospective DEPB benefits justified amendment of shipping bills despite missing contemporaneous export documents.

Amendment of shipping bills under Section 149 of the Customs Act can be permitted where a later public notice retrospectively extends DEPB benefits to exports already made and the exported goods fall within the notified items. The public notice issued under the Exim Policy expressly covered shipments made during the relevant prior period, so a refusal based solely on the absence of contemporaneous documentary evidence at the time of export was inconsistent with the notice's object and terms. On that basis, the amendment was allowed and the Section 149 objection failed in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether amendment of shipping bills under Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 could be allowed on the basis of a later public notice that retrospectively extended DEPB benefits to exports already made, despite the absence of contemporaneous documentary evidence at the time of export.

Analysis: The export goods were not originally covered under the DEPB Scheme when shipped, but Public Notice No. 31(RE-98)/1997-2002, issued under paragraph 4.11 of the Exim Policy 1997-2022, expressly extended the benefit retrospectively to shipments made between 1.4.1997 and 14.4.1998. The goods exported by the assessee fell within the notified items, and the earlier remand order had already recognised that the public notice covered the relevant export period. In that background, the refusal to amend the shipping bills on a purely contemporaneous-document basis was contrary to the object and terms of the public notice and could not be sustained.

Conclusion: The amendment was rightly allowed and the objection based on Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 failed; the ruling is in favour of the assessee.

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