Customs valuation and royalty inclusion depend on comparable facts; distinguishable licence terms left invoice value undisturbed.

Imported goods need not be revalued to include lumpsum fee and royalty where the contractual arrangement is materially different from the cited precedents. The appellate authority held that the departmental appeal failed to show how those decisions applied, because the collaborator's licence was not a pre-condition for the sale of the machinery and components. On that factual basis, the precedents on customs valuation were held inapplicable, and the invoice value accepted under the valuation rules was not disturbed. The lower authority's finalisation of provisional assessment was therefore upheld, and the challenge to inclusion of royalty and technical fee in assessable value failed.

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Issues: Whether the imported goods were required to be revalued by including lumpsum fee and royalty in the assessable value, and whether the cited precedents applied to the facts of the case.

Analysis: The appellate authority found that the departmental appeal did not set out any sufficient ground to show the applicability of the cited decisions. It further held that the facts before it were materially different from those in the cited cases, particularly because the licence arrangement did not make the collaborator's licence a pre-condition for sale of the machinery and components. On that basis, the authority concluded that the ratio of the cited judgments could not govern the present matter and that the lower authority had correctly accepted the invoice value and finalised the provisional assessment under the valuation rules.

Conclusion: The departmental challenge to inclusion of royalty and lumpsum fee in the assessable value failed, and the order of the adjudicating authority was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: A precedent on inclusion of royalty or technical fee in customs valuation applies only where the material facts and contractual stipulations are comparable; where the facts are distinguishable, the invoice value accepted under the valuation rules need not be disturbed.

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