1985 (4) TMI 288

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....that the appellants imported a consignment of palmolein by the vessel M.V. Nikolay Semashko at Madras Port in 1979. The vessel arrived at the port on 22-2-1979 but, owing to congestion in the port, opted to register arrival under the Registration system and sailed away. She re-arrived at the port on 28-2-1979 and berthed on 2-3-1979. The cargo was discharged thereafter. A Bill of Entry for clearance of the goods for home consumption was filed on 13-3-1979, the duty assessed thereon was paid on 16-3-1979 and the goods cleared thereafter. Later on, the appellants filed an application before the Assistant Collector of Customs, Madras claiming refund of the duty paid on the ground that the goods were exempt from basic duty (the duty leviable....

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....en the aforesaid notification was no longer in force but Notification 42-Cus., dated 1-3-1979 imposing 121/2% duty on palmolein-all these were not relevant in the face of the law laid down by the Bombay High Court in M.S. Sawhney and Anr. v. Sylvania Laxman Ltd. - 1977 BLR 360- according to which the goods having been imported i.e. arrived in the territorial waters of India when they were exempt from duty, would not attract duty on their clearance. The goods were, in fact and in law, imported on 22-2-1979. The taxable event viz. import took place on 22-2-1979 and in accordance with Section 12 of the Customs Act, 1962 (hereafter called 'the Act') there being no duty when the import took place, Section 15 of the Act which only provided for qu....

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....hip entered the territorial waters, calculation for the purpose of rate of duty must be done with reference to the date mentioned in Section 15 in various circumstances. The Court also pointed out that serious and grave implications were involved in accepting the argument that import should be deemed to be completed for the purpose of calculating the duty of customs the moment a ship entered the terr- itorial waters of India, thing which is difficult of determination with exactitude. 6. The position that the rate of duty has to be calculated with reference to the date laid down in Section 15 of the Act stands concluded by the Supreme Court in Prakash Cotton Mills v. B. Sen & Ors. - AIR 1979 S.C. 615 in the following words : "It i....

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.... entry, or, in the case of warehoused goods, on the date of their removal from the warehouse, or, in the case of any other goods, on the date of payment of duty. What is payable is what was in force on the relevant date. That a different rate of duty was payable at the time of entry of the vessel into the territorial waters of India or at any time prior to the dates specified under Section 15 is immaterial. The legislative intent is to charge the goods with the duty payable on the relevant date and not any other date. This is the most convenient method of fixing the duties and collecting the same. The space and time are both certain, and the enforcement of collection is easiest at that point. That is the relevant stage for the purpose of ch....