Declared invoice value for imported vehicle upheld where contemporaneous documents supported valuation and no lawful basis for rejection existed.

Where the declared invoice value of an imported used vehicle is supported by the invoice, bill of lading and other contemporaneous particulars, customs authorities cannot reject that value merely on suspicion. The Tribunal found the identity and description of the vehicle consistent with the documents, accepted the earlier valuation appreciation, and held that no sufficient ground existed to discard the declared price. The challenge to confiscation-related relief also failed because the basis for rejecting the valuation and disturbing the reduced redemption fine and penalty was absent.

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Issues: Whether the invoice value declared for the imported used vehicle was liable to be rejected and the goods confiscated with consequential fine and penalty.

Analysis: The declared invoice, bill of lading and supporting particulars were examined and found to be consistent with the identity and description of the vehicle. The authority below had already accepted the invoice value on the basis that the relevant valuation parameters were disclosed and that no sufficient ground existed to discard the declared price. The Tribunal found no infirmity in that appreciation of the evidence. The revenue's objection that the invoice was fabricated or that the importer had earlier accepted the departmental valuation was not accepted, since the record showed that the valuation was in fact challenged. In these circumstances, the basis for rejecting the invoice value and interfering with the reduced redemption fine and penalty was absent.

Conclusion: The invoice value was rightly accepted and the revenue's challenge to the valuation and consequential relief failed.

Final Conclusion: The order accepting the declared value and reducing the fine and penalty was sustained, and the departmental appeal was rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the declared invoice value of imported goods is supported by contemporaneous documents and no legally sustainable ground for rejection is shown, the customs authorities cannot discard that value merely on suspicion.

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