TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2003 (9) TMI 380
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.... disposed of the said vehicles, by an auction on 26-1-1995. The Show Cause Notices issued, as seen in the case of Appellant in Appeal No. 968/R/97-MUM alleged :- (i) The vehicle imported was auctioned by Standard & Chartered Bank on 21-1-95 and hence could not have been in the importer's possession for more than one year as per Public Notice No. 202(PN) 1992-97, dated 30-3-94. (ii) Addresses on the invoice/bill of lading and address on the passport of the importer are different. (iii) The importer has misdeclared his address in India with intention to mislead the Customs Department after clerance of the car. (iv) Close scrutiny of invoice No. 0001, dated 2-1-93 shows that it has marking at left bottom side to indicate "FPP/JAN 94/50 BOOKS", that would lead to the conclusion that the invoice was printed in January, 1994. Therefore, it appears that the invoice has been backdated with intention to mislead the Customs Department to avail wrongful TR facility. The importer had no funds towards payment of duty in his NRE account. (v) &nb....
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....eal was rejected, after accepting the lower authority's order on the documents produced and their acceptability. 5. The Revenue has filed these appeals on the grounds : (i) the Additional Commissioner has applied full rigors of Evidence Act to the case booked under Customs Act while as per the decision in the case of D. Bhoormall - 1983 (13) E.L.T. 1546 (S.C.), it was held that the principles underlying Section 106 of the Evidence Act, the burden would deemed to have been discharged, if sufficient evidence to raise the presumption was adduced. (ii) The Commissioner (Appeals) was not correct in arriving at a decision that the Department had not presented any evidence or documents in the grounds of support were produced. (iii) The original authority had erred in relying on the premise that documents authenticated by the Indian Counsel in the UAE and by the Government Department in the Ministry of Interior like Registration Book, Insurance, etc. were originals was not correct. It was submitted that the documents, the Indian Counsel has cert....
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....e Revenue, were perused and it is found : (a) The fax dated 29th June, 1995 addressed to AC, SIIB from Standard & Chartered Bank Group Manager reads as follows : "We refer to your fax message of 28-6-95 with attachments concerning three specified vehicles and the date of auction. We have reviewed the files of our Personal Banking Unit and have spoken to Mr. Shahli Akram. Attached for your information are copies of the 2 page fax sent to our former client Mr. Alex Joseph on 21 February, 1995. The office has sighted the original fax and is sure that what you have received is a deliberately altered copy and we would ask you to investigate this forgery. In the circumstances, we would ask that you refer all documents purportedly issued by Standard & Chartered Bank to this office for verification. We are also not prepared to have Standard & Chartered's documents and name brought into disrepute by any other party for their own gain. We repeat our statement of 21 June, 1995 that the three vehicles referred to in your fax of 20-6-95 were not sold by SCB on the 26 January, 1995. We are prepared to advise that the vehicles were sold to a th....
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....ow : (i) Umm Al Quwain Police - vide their letter dated 2-10-95 the traffic and licence section of Umm Al Quwain have informed that the said three vehicles were registered with them, the details of which are furnished, are correct, and the export certificates issued by them in this connection are genuine (Reply received in original is enclosed). (ii) M/s. Al Habtoor Motors - vide their letter dated 20-9-95 (Shri Abit Shetty, Fleet Sales Manager) have informed that the three invoices are true and correct and that the "No. FPP/Jan. 94/50 Books" is their internal confidential coding of invoices and has no connection whatsoever on being printed in January, 1994 (Reply in original is enclosed). (iii) M/s. Standard & Chartered Bank, Dubai : vide their letter dated 26-10-95, Shri M. Walker, Group Manager of M/s. Standard & Chartered Bank, Dubai has informed that Mr. Shahli Akram has denied having issued letter of 25-6-95, that they have no dealings with three Mitsubishi Pajeros bearing the letter 'N' in the vehicle identification numbers and if this is substituted with letter 'R' the vehicle numbers quoted are correct and these vehicles were not sold by them on 26-1-95, ....
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.... made after re-possession but does not indicate the date of the re-possession or that in the auction, the present importers were not the persons who were sold these cars. No enquiries seem to have been made on these vital issues. Nor were the importers clarification sought on re-possession etc. On incomplete enquiries, the case being made out by the Department cannot be supported. (b) The set of documents submitted by Revenue also enclosed. Public Notice No. 202(PN)92-97, dated 30-3-1994 issued by Government of India, Ministry of Finance, indicating the policy relating to Import of Cars. Para 2(A) thereof reads as under : "Indian nationals or foreign nations of Indian origin coming to India for permanent settlement : (a) Import of one passenger car with engine size not exceeding four cylinders and not exceeding 1600 c.c. is permitted, whether the car is new or old. Alternatively, import of one passenger car is also permitted provided the car has been in the use of the importer for more than a year prior to his return to India. (b) The importer has stayed abroad continuously for a period of at least two years prior to his....