TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2013 (3) TMI 6
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....r General of Foreign Trade. We may record facts in brief. 3. The petitioner No. 1 is a company registered under the Companies Act. The petitioner No. 2 is an office bearer. The petitioners are engaged in the business of manufacture of various chemicals. The petitioners had made certain imports in terms of nine advanced licences issued by the Joint DGFT, Ahmedabad. Such imports were made for manufacture of chemicals for export. Joint DGFT, however, noticed that such export obligations were not fulfilled by the petitioners. On such basis, individual show-cause notices came to be issued against the petitioners for breach of the conditions of licence and other terms of the policy of the Government of India under which such imports were pe....
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...." 4. On the basis of the above allegations, the show-cause notice proposed following action against the petitioners :- "5. Now, therefore in exercise of the powers vested in me under Section 13 of the Foreign Trade (Development & Regulation) Act, 1992, I call upon the Noticee firm to show cause within period of 30 days from receipt of this notice as to why action should not be taken under Section 11(2) of the Foreign Trade (Development & Regulation) Act, 1992 to imposition of fiscal penalty on the Noticee firm and its directors. If they want to have personal hearing to explain their case they may appear before the Jt. Director General of Foreign Trade of this office on 5-10-2006 at 3.00 p.m." 5. In para 6 of the show-cause....
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....mount of Rs. 1686577/- (Rupees sixteen lakh eighty six thousand five hundred seventy seven only) from/by the noticee Company/Directors jointly and severely. 9.3 The Recovery/payment of Penalty amount of Rs. 10000/- (Rupees ten thousand only) from/by the noticee Company/Directors jointly and severely. 9.4 The recovery/payment in respect of 9.1 and 9.2 above may be made to the customs authority concerned. 9.5 The recovery/payment in respect of 9.3 above may be made to the Regional Authority. 9.6 Immediately after recovery/payment of the amount as indicated in paras 9.1 to 9.3 above, the Show Cause Notice will be treated as withdrawn and case will stand as closed/discharged/regularised. 8. Thereupon, the petitione....
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....mport license and the regulations framed by the Government of India, Joint DGFT was also empowered to recover customs duty on the premise that the export obligations specified in the import licence were not fulfilled. 12. In the present group of petitions, we confine ourselves only to the question of recovery of customs duty with interest. Here also, we propose to take up only the first contention of the petitioners for consideration. We have recorded the relevant portion of the show-cause notices. From bare perusal of such notices, it becomes clear that there was no proposal for recovery of the customs duty. All that the notice indicated was that for alleged breaches of failure to fulfill the export obligations, the Joint DGFT propos....
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....vides that no order imposing a penalty or of adjudication of confiscation shall be made unless the owner of the goods or conveyance, or other person concerned, has been given a notice in writing informing him of the grounds on which it is proposed to impose a penalty or to confiscate such goods or conveyance and to make a representation against the imposition of penalty or confiscation. 13. From the above, it can be seen that the competent authority under Section 11(2) of the Act of 1992 had power to impose penalty up to a maximum of Rupees one thousand or five times the value of goods in respect of which any contravention is made or attempted to be made, whichever is higher. Such provision nowhere pertains to recovery of the customs ....