CESTAT partly allowed the Revenue's appeal. It upheld the...

CESTAT partly allowed the Revenue's appeal. It upheld the Commissioner (Appeals)' setting aside of the Joint Commissioner's rejection and redetermination of the declared FOB value, holding that the proper officer had neither validly rejected the transaction value under rule 8 nor followed the mandatory sequential valuation under rules 4 to 6. However, it restored the Joint Commissioner's reclassification of the export goods under the correct serial numbers of the Drawback and ROSCTL Schedules, as CRCL's test confirmed the garments were of blended fabric and not 100% cotton. Confiscation per se and redemption fine were found unsustainable in the facts, particularly in view of the provisional release bond terms. Penalty under section 114AA was held not leviable for want of proof of conscious mis-declaration. Penalty of Rs. 2,00,000 under section 114(iii), being linked to mis-declaration of fabric rendering the goods liable to confiscation, was restored.