TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (2) TMI 506
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....-dumping duty, and of M/s Kavi Commercial Ltd, challenging the levy of differential duty of Rs. 44,57,307 and Rs. 87,27,564 attributable to similar enhancement of value and application of anti-dumping duty, along with penalties imposed under section 112 and section 114AA of Customs Act, 1962 as well as the redemption on confiscation subject to payment of fine, are disposed of by this common order owing to the issues being identical. Briefly, the appellants imported 'trapezoidal roof profiles' claiming classification as 'parts of structures' in heading no. 7308 9090 of the First Schedule to Customs Tariff Act, 1975 against various bills of entry between December 2016 and January 2017 which was, instead, classified under heading no. 7210 4100....
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....to be redeemed on payment of fine. 3. Arguably, there are taints on the proceedings that has also been brought on record by the appellants and to which we must, doubtlessly, allude. Following the issue of show cause notice proposing re-classification with attendant detriment and penalty, and after receipt of the response to the notices, the issuing authority compromised its competence with a corrigendum proposing an alternative classification that was adopted in the impugned order and enhancement of value. Not only is this attempt to fill perceived gaps by afterthought deplorable but is also sufficiently demonstrative of initiation of proceedings without proper application of mind. Furthermore, the inability to stand by the classification ....
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.... must be threshed as the consequence would be a travesty of the law of valuation. 5. Valuation of imported goods is governed by section 14 of Customs Act, 1962. It is now trite that application of prescribed rate of duty to the transaction value is the very foundation of the tax. The consequence of discarding of the declared value for non-conformity with the various aspects that together validate the transaction value is the ascertainment of the most proximate substitute thereof by sequential application of the Customs Valuation (Determination of Value of Imported Goods) Rules, 2007 framed under the authority of section 14 of Customs Act, 1962. Even in circumstances that do not admit amenability of any of the specified rules, 'best judgeme....
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....'open general licence' to such goods. Lack of license invites the detriments, including compensatory fines, that visit importers of prohibited goods. Strangely, it is this limited instrument, mothered by a statute with no claims to be in pursuance of Article 265 of the Constitution, that has been proposed, and employed, for valuation of the impugned goods. Also by no stretch can such threshold prescription be presumed to be the 'tariff value' intended in section 14 (2) of Customs Act, 1962; nor can it don the mantle of 'best judgement' of Customs Valuation (Determination of Value of Imported Goods), 2007. The governing Rules make no reference to empowerment of any authority, outside those in Customs Act, 1962, for its implementation. We, th....
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....Tariff Act, 1975, cannot be said to include 'trapezoidal' profile. According to Learned Counsel, the literature available on the subject makes it abundantly clear that corrugated profile has been available for more than a century while trapezoidal profile is of recent deployment in the construction of structures. He contends that the corrugation of flat sheets involves a second rolling unlike cold-forming and pressing by which trapezoidal sheets are manufactured. He claims that the consumption targets are also entirely different and that trapezoidal sheets are used only for roofing. He also submits that the sinusoidal curve that characterises, and defines, corrugation is not consistent with the shape of the trapezoidal. 10. On the other ha....
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....rate inclusion of 'corrugated' in 'flat rolled' could well have encompassed the distinct and separate 'trapezoidal' had legislative intent determined so as both were in use by the trade when the tariff was enacted. 12. Moreover, the sinusoidal curve that distinguishes 'corrugated' products in the Explanatory Notes to the Harmonised System of Nomenclature is not restricted to 'hot rolled products' as insisted upon by Learned Authorized Representative. The headings are structured in such a way that these are parallel descriptions of the two modes of 'rolling' with physical properties alone varying. Therefore, we arrive at the firm conclusion that the impugned order has not classified the impugned goods under the most appropriate heading and ....