TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (4) TMI 482
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....1. It is their contention that the value declared is correct, that the adopted value has no relation with the value at which they procured the goods, that the goods having been subject to examination were found to be in order by customs authorities, and that the forged documents had been inserted by the clearing agent who has a past record of such misdemeanours. 2. Proceedings were initiated against the appellants and others for having attempted to export sub-standard fabric which were claimed to be 'processed man-made fabric'. It was alleged in the show cause notice that the goods were highly overvalued, that the quantity was mis-declared in the export documents and that the intent had been to claim undue credit under the Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) scheme embodied in the Foreign Trade Policy issued by the Government of India in the Department of Commerce. 437 packages of fabric were entered for export against 14 shipping bills dated 4th December 2003. The said exports were claimed to have been covered by documents such as ARE-1 and declared as 'grey/dyed and/or printed fabrics made out of man-made filament yarn with or without embroidery and/or with or withou....
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....toms authorities were not authentic. An attempt has been made to portray the agent as the villain of the piece; this fails to impress as there is no conceivable motive for the agent to indulge in such misdemeanour when the appellant-exporter, admittedly, would derive the benefit of higher credit entitlement. The submission of the ARE-1s could well have lulled the customs authorities at load port into accepting the declarations on the shipping bills without a detailed scrutiny. We are conscious that this inference may well be of speculative nature but, in the circumstances, is not a factor that is easily disregarded. In any case, it would discredit the claim of innocence put forth on behalf of the appellant. Moreover, the decision in re Vittesse Export Import, cited on behalf of appellant, would not come to their assistance as the declarations, as well as the supporting documents, are shown to be erroneous. The Hon'ble Supreme Court has, in Commissioner of Central Excise & Customs, AP v. Suresh Jhunjhunwala [2006 (203) ELT 353 (SC)], held that- "12. Section 113 of the Act refers to confiscation of goods in certain circumstances, clause (d) whereof reads as under: ....
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....e export value of the goods, it is necessary to refer to the meaning of the word "value" as defined in Section 2(41) of the Act, and the same must be determined in accordance with the provision of sub-section (1) of Section 14, stating: "...Section 14 specifically provides that in case of assessing the value for the purpose of export, value is to be determined at the price at which such or like goods are ordinarily sold or offered for sale at the place of exportation in the course of international trade, where the seller and the buyer have no interest in the business of each other and the price is the sole consideration for sale. No doubt, Section 14 would be applicable for determining the value of the goods for the purpose of tariff or duty of customs chargeable on the goods. In addition, by reference it is to be resorted to and applied for determining the export value of the goods as provided under sub-section (41) of Section 2. This is independent of any question of assessability of the goods sought to be exported to duty. Hence, for finding out whether the export value is truly stated in the shipping bill, even if no duty is leviable, it can be referred to for determin....
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.... money transaction. In any case, over-invoicing of the export goods would result in illegal/irregular transactions in foreign currency." 6.2 In the present case, it is very clear from the investigations by the departmental authorities that the appellant had not declared the correct value of the export goods under Section 14 of the Customs Act in the above-mentioned case. The Apex Court has held that to ascertain the export value of the goods under Section 2(41) of the Customs Act, one has to resort to Section 14 for finding out whether the export value is truly stated in the shipping bill. Even if no duty is leviable, it can be referred to for determining the true export value of the goods. Hence, if export values were not correctly stated, it would render the impugned goods "prohibited". This is very clear from a full reading of the decision in the case of Om Prakash Bhatia (supra). In the light of the above facts, it would be very difficult to sustain the contentions of the learned advocate. 6.3 To sum up (i) It is a fact that the correct export value of the impugned goods had not been furnished. In fact the values were inflated to get higher DEPB credi....
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....recourse to Customs and Central Excise (Drawback) Rules, 1995 which the present export, admittedly, is not. That the 'present market value' declared in the shipping bill is subject to scrutiny and action thereon is established by the decision of the Tribunal in Asian Exports v. Commissioner of Customs (Exports), Mumbai [2009 (238) ELT 85 (Tri-Mum)]. 8. The appellant claims, with reference to the decision of Larger Bench of the Tribunal in Collector of Customs, Cochin v. Arvind Export (P) Ltd [2001(130) ELT 54 (Tri-LB)], that a fresh determination of assessment without review and appeal is not correct in law. We find that, though the Tribunal has held thus "6. We find that the scope of Section 47 of Customs Act is interpreted by the Division Bench of Hon'ble Madras High Court in the case of Best & Crompton Engineering v. C.C., Madras reported in 1997 (93) ELT 21 (Mad.) that the order passed under Section 47 of the Act permitting clearance brings about certain inevitable consequences in law with certain mutual obligations and rights both for the revenue and for the importer. In passing an order under Section 47 of the Act, the proper officer is obliged to veri....