2013 (11) TMI 38

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....neous applications are for early hearing of the stay petitions. Since stay petitions are now taken up, the miscellaneous applications are infructuous and they are dismissed as such. 3. The appellants undertook imports of "White Poppy Seeds" from Turkey declaring an FOB value of USD 1700 PMT. The goods were provisionally assessed and cleared on executing a bond and bank guarantee. Later on the department sought to finalise the provisional assessments and issued notices to the appellants for the same proposing to enhance the value from USD 1700 PMT to USD 3406 PMT. The reason proposed in the notice for enhancement was (i) there was a cartel operating in Turkey in respect of supplies of Poppy seeds to India and the said cartel determines an....

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....o evidence led by the Revenue by way of contemporaneous imports indicating a higher price for the import of poppy seeds and therefore he dropped the proceedings on the ground of lack of evidence alleging undervaluation. In the present case also no evidence for undervaluation has been adduced by the Revenue to indicate that the transaction value declared by the appellant is incorrect or wrong or they have remitted extra consideration other than those reflected in the import documents, in respect of the transactions. 4.2 The existence of a cartel as alleged in the show-cause notice is only an allegation without any evidence. There is no proof to show that such a cartel in fact exists and the cartel decides the prices of poppy seeds supplie....

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....m USD 2500 to USD 4200 PMT for the goods. Therefore, the value adopted taking the averages of the two values by the assessing officer cannot be faulted, especially considering the allegation in the show-cause notice that there exists a cartel which manipulates the prices of poppy seeds supplied to India and therefore the prices decided by the cartel is suspect. In view of the above, he prays for upholding the impugned order and putting the appellant to terms. 6. We have considered the submissions made by both the sides. 6.1 Section 14 of the Customs Act, read with Rule 4 of the Customs (Valuation) Rules provides for acceptance of transaction values. For valid reasons, as provided for under Rule 10A, valuation can be resorted to by ado....