Licence deletion displaced the office-machine import bar, allowing fax machines under additional licence flexibility.

Fax machines were treated as office machines for Import Policy purposes, and the policy ordinarily barred their import under the additional licence flexibility for non-OGL capital goods. However, where the licences expressly deleted the conditions incorporating the general Import Trade Control Policy, the import claim had to be assessed only on the remaining licence terms and the applicable flexibility provision. On that basis, the general office-machine restriction could not be relied on to defeat the import. The special endorsement on the licences therefore displaced the broader policy bar, and the fax machines were held importable under the additional licence scheme.

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Issues: (i) whether fax machines, being office machines, could be imported against additional licences as non-OGL capital goods under the flexibility provisions of the Import Policy; (ii) whether deletion of conditions (i) to (iii) on the reverse of the licences excluded the general policy restriction on office machines.

Issue (i): whether fax machines, being office machines, could be imported against additional licences as non-OGL capital goods under the flexibility provisions of the Import Policy.

Analysis: The additional licence scheme permitted import of non-OGL capital goods within the flexibility allowed by para 215(4)(iii), read with para 215(5). At the same time, para 118(7) and the corresponding provision in the later policy barred import of office machines under the capital goods procedure and under flexibility provisions. The policy had to be read harmoniously, and the office-machine restriction was not excluded merely because the goods were capital goods in a general sense.

Conclusion: The office-machine restriction would ordinarily apply, and fax machines could not be imported under the flexibility provisions merely on the footing that they were non-OGL capital goods.

Issue (ii): whether deletion of conditions (i) to (iii) on the reverse of the licences excluded the general policy restriction on office machines.

Analysis: The endorsements deleting conditions (i) to (iii) removed the clause that made the licences subject to the general conditions of the relevant Import Trade Control Policy. In the absence of those conditions, the import had to be tested only against the remaining licence terms and the flexibility permitted under para 215. On that basis, the bar relating to office machines could not be imported into the licences to defeat the import claim.

Conclusion: The deletion of conditions (i) to (iii) prevented the general office-machine restriction from being applied against these licences, and the imports were permissible.

Final Conclusion: The appeals succeeded because the special endorsement on the licences displaced the general policy restriction, entitling the appellants to import the fax machines as non-OGL capital goods under the additional licence flexibility.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a licence expressly deletes the clause incorporating general policy restrictions, the importability of the goods must be tested on the remaining licence terms and the relevant flexibility provision, and an otherwise applicable policy bar cannot be relied on to defeat the import.

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