Beneficial owners exercising effective control over imported...

Beneficial owners exercising effective control over imported goods may be treated as importers and held liable for customs duty, interest, penalty and fine, including authorised signatories acting under powers of attorney for a deceased sole proprietor. Transaction value cannot be rejected merely on NIDB data unless evidence establishes that the declared price was not the price actually paid or payable, supported by comparable-goods analysis. Where quantity misdeclaration is admitted, duty may be recovered on undeclared goods at the declared value. Findings on live consignments cannot, without proof of undervaluation, justify enhancing assessable value of past cleared consignments or confiscating them. A substantial non-bona-fide quantity discrepancy may sustain penalty under Section 114AA, although other penalty and confiscation directions may fail.