TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2007 (4) TMI 167
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....currency value of Rs. 32,500/-. These were seized as the passenger had not declared them and had concealed them in his baggage. In the statement recorded from him immediately after seizure, Slid T. Soundararajan deposed that he had made three visits to Vietnam in 2004 and 2005 and had not brought back any foreign currency. He had bought 53,000 US $ from various person in and around his native town and had decided to carry the currency to part finance purchase of used excavators with unaccounted money as desired by their foreign suppliers. He had raised the required funds to buy foreign currency by taking loan from M/s. Jayapria Financiers, Neyveli. He did not have any documents to prove the licit acquisition of foreign and Indian currencies....
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....stoms authorities, the Commissioner found that Shri T. Soundararjan had attempted to smuggle out Indian currency and foreign currencies concealing the same in his baggage in contravention of Sections 77 & 79 of the Customs Act and provisions of Foreign Trade Policy 2004 - 09, Foreign Trade (Development & Regulations) Act, 1992 and Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1990. Shri T. Soundararajan had acquired foreign currency illegally. Following the above findings the Commissioner ordered absolute confiscation of foreign currency of US $ 53,500 equivalent to of Rs. 24,54,580/- and Indian currency of Rs. 32,500/-under Section 113(d), (h) and (i) of the Customs Act, 1962 and confiscated the articles found to have been used to conceal the currencie....
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....rencies were not prohibited goods. It was also submitted that the currencies were not concealed and that the confiscated currencies should have been allowed to be redeemed. Several case laws were cited in support of his plea that it was mandatory for the adjudicating authority to allow the impugned goods to be redeemed on payment of fine. 3. Heard both sides. We have considered grounds raised in the appeal against the impugned order and the oral submissions made by both sides. In the statement recorded immediately after seizure of the impugned currencies, the appellant had admitted that the currencies had not been acquired through legal means; that he had intended to pay the same to the supplier of excavators he intended to purchase with....
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....he adjudicating authority has no discretion but to allow the goods to be released on payment of Redemption Fine. This was also the view of the Co-ordinate Mumbai bench in the case of Felix Dares Fernandes v. CC, ACC, Mumbai (supra) wherein it has been held that undeclared foreign currency found with appellant on his departure to Dubai, although its confiscation is sustainable but the same is required to be released on payment of fine in terms of Section 125 of the Customs Ad, 1962." The Tribunal in that case remanded the case to the Commissioner for re-consideration of the pleas raised by the appellants and for considering release of the seized foreign currency on payment of redemption fine In Felix Dares Fernandes v. CC, ACC, Mumbai (su....