Cardboard exemption under customs notification turns on product classification and strict compliance with origin certificate form

Both side coated white card board imported from Yugoslavia was treated as covered by the generic expression "cardboard" in Serial No. 98 of Notification No. 341/76-Cus., bringing the goods within the exemption. The Tribunal also noted that exemption depended on compliance with the prescribed certificate-of-origin form, even where the certificate appeared as a rubber stamp on the reverse of the invoice. The operative point was that origin documentation had to satisfy the notification's formal requirements for the benefit to apply.

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Issues: Whether "both side coated white card board" imported from Yugoslavia was covered by the exemption under Notification No. 341/76-Cus. dated 2-8-1976, and whether the certificates of origin in the form of a rubber stamp on the reverse of the invoice satisfied the prescribed form.

Analysis: The Tribunal followed its earlier view that cardboard is a generic term broad enough to include the goods described as both side coated white card board, and therefore such goods fall within Serial No. 98 of Notification No. 341/76-Cus. dated 2-8-1976. The Tribunal also held that the benefit would be available only if the certificates of origin, though placed on the reverse of the invoice by rubber stamp, complied with the prescribed form under the notification.

Conclusion: The goods were held eligible for exemption under Notification No. 341/76-Cus. dated 2-8-1976, subject to verification that the certificates of origin conformed to the prescribed form; the appeals were therefore allowed with consequential relief.

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