CESTAT allowed the appeal and set aside the impugned order,...

CESTAT allowed the appeal and set aside the impugned order, holding that customs authorities lacked legal competence to re-assess import value or recover additional duty beyond the statutory valuation regime. The Tribunal ruled that the proviso to s.3(2), Customs Tariff Act, 1975, which aligns additional duty with excise treatment, does not authorize fixing or imposing retail sale prices and cannot be invoked absent statutory metrology enforcement; enforcement of packaged-commodity marking and price particulars falls to legal metrology authorities except insofar as s.47, Customs Act, 1962, empowers customs officers. Post-clearance recovery is confined to duties demonstrably short-paid under the Customs Valuation Rules and Central Excise law; appeal allowed.