Written acceptance does not bar challenge to customs valuation; enhancement needs proper safeguards and cannot rest on consent alone.

Written acceptance by an importer under the Customs Act waives only the requirement of a speaking order on reassessment; it does not extinguish the right to challenge the reassessment or valuation on merits. In this valuation dispute under the Customs Valuation Rules, 2007, the Tribunal held that enhancement of assessable value could not rest solely on a consent letter or unsupported external data without the safeguards required by the statutory valuation framework. The enhancement based only on written acceptance was therefore treated as unsustainable, and the impugned orders were set aside in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the enhancement of assessable value based on written acceptance by the importer, without a speaking order, was sustainable in law.

Analysis: The dispute concerned reassessment of imported goods under the Customs Act and the valuation framework under the Customs Valuation Rules, 2007. The Tribunal noted that the importer had repeatedly sought clearance under protest and that the correspondence could not be treated as a simple voluntary acceptance of enhancement. It followed the Delhi High Court's ruling that the waiver under Section 17(5) is confined to the obligation to pass a speaking order where reassessment is accepted in writing, and does not destroy the statutory right to question the reassessment on merits. The Tribunal also accepted that valuation cannot rest merely on a consent letter or on unsupported reliance on external data, without the procedural safeguards required by the valuation provisions.

Conclusion: The enhancement based solely on written acceptance was held unsustainable, and the impugned orders were set aside in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Acceptance in writing under Section 17(5) of the Customs Act, 1962 waives only the requirement of a speaking order and does not amount to an abandonment of the statutory right to challenge reassessment or valuation on merits.

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