2008 (3) TMI 540

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....ary imposed under Section 112(a) of Customs Act, 1962. There is equivalent duty amount as penalty on the hotel, which is an appellant before us. The Miscellaneous Application seeks for out of turn hearing of these appeals. 2. The appellants were registered under EPCG Scheme and in terms of the said scheme they were permitted to import Toyota Land Cruiser V8 bearing registration No. KL7 AL 9488. Detailed investigations were carried out by the department and the statements of several persons were recorded. Shri K.P. Vijayan, Company Secretary in his statement stated that initially the vehicle was registered as private vehicle and that subsequently with effect from 30-1-2006 the registration was changed to that of tourist taxi, that th....

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....customs house, Cochin. Be that as it may, the Revenue has directed the appellants to surrender the car or comply with the impugned order. 4. We have heard in great length both sides in the matter. The learned Counsel strenuously argued the matter and submitted that there is no violation of EPCG licence. He referred to the DGFT Circular wherein it clarifies that hotel industries need not maintain specific entries with regard to the use of car as it is not practical. He also submits that the obligation to fulfill the export is up to 2011 and therefore, the initiation of proceedings is pre-mature. After detailed deliberations of the matter including perusal of the records and on specific query from the Bench, the learned advocate agree....

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....settled law that when the Revenue has got a strong prima facie case, then no waiver should be granted in the matter. She takes us through the findings of the Commissioner including the admissions made by several officers of the hotel who have stated that they were only maintaining general ledgers and journals without specific mention of the vehicle number. She pointed out that the car has not been attached to the hotel and the meaning of the term "installation" used in the impugned order and the show cause notice should be read to mean that the car has to be attached and used as tourist taxi for foreign tourist by the Hotel. There is no evidence of realization of the foreign exchange from the tourist and therefore, the order holding that th....