Customs valuation must rest on cogent evidence, and duty paid to secure clearance does not bar a reassessment challenge.

Declared import value cannot be enhanced merely by relying on NIDB data or contemporaneous import comparisons unless the proper officer records a legally sustainable reason to doubt the declared value and supports reassessment with cogent evidence. The Tribunal also recognised that payment of enhanced duty to obtain clearance, when made under compulsion or protest, does not waive the importer's statutory right to challenge the reassessment. On that basis, the valuation enhancement was found unsustainable and the reassessment order was set aside.

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Issues: Whether enhancement of the declared import value on the basis of NIDB data and contemporaneous imports, without sufficient independent material, was legally sustainable; and whether acceptance of the enhanced duty to secure clearance barred the importer from challenging the reassessment.

Analysis: The Tribunal followed the binding view that under the customs valuation scheme, rejection of declared value and reassessment must rest on a legally sustainable reason to doubt, supported by reasons and cogent material, and cannot be founded on NIDB data alone. It further held that payment of enhanced duty under compulsion for clearance does not amount to waiver or estoppel against the importer's statutory right to dispute the reassessment. Applying that ratio, the Tribunal found the impugned enhancement unsustainable.

Conclusion: The enhancement of value was held unsustainable and the appeals were allowed in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The common re-assessment order was set aside, and the importer's challenge succeeded with consequential relief as permitted by law.

Ratio Decidendi: Declared import value cannot be rejected or enhanced merely on the basis of NIDB data or similar external comparisons unless the proper officer records a legally tenable reason to doubt and supports reassessment with cogent evidence; acceptance of enhanced duty under protest does not extinguish the importer's right to challenge the valuation.

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