TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (10) TMI 71
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....00 under section 125 and penalties were imposed under sections 114A and 114AA. 2. The undisputed facts of the case are that the appellant imported Colchicum (Saanjan) Grade 3" and filed Bill of Entry No.7821136 dated 11.03.2022 at Inland Container Depot [ICD], Tughlakabad to clear the goods claiming the benefit of Notification No. 99/2011-Cus which exempted the goods originating in Afghanistan from the whole of duty of Customs. The goods were detained, documents were called for, and statements were recorded by the officers of the Commissioner of Customs (Preventive) and a Show Cause Notice was issued to the appellant which culminated in the impugned order. 3. The undisputed legal position is that goods imported from Afghanistan are exempted from the whole of duty by Notification No.99/2011-Customs dated 9.11.2011 and that all goods originating in or exported from Pakistan are classifiable under Customs Tariff Heading 98060000 and are chargeable to customs duty @ 200% in view of the Notification No.5/2019 dated 16.02.2019 issued under Section 8A of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. It must be noted that the Notification No. 99/2011 dated 9.11.2011 exempting the goods imported from....
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.... Finance (Department Revenue) No. 75/2006-Customs, (N.T.), dated the 30th June, 2006. Annexure S. No. HS Code Description (1) (2) (3) 1 2203 to 2206 All goods 2 2207 10 All goods 3 2208 All goods 4 Chapter 24 All goods APPENDIX S. No. Country (1) (2) 1. People‟s Republic of Bangladesh 2. Kingdom of Bhutan 3. Republic of Maldives 4. Nepal 5. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Section 8A of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 SECTION 8A. Emergency power of Central Government to increase import duties. - (1) Where in respect of any article included in the First Schedule, the Central Government is satisfied that the import duty leviable thereon under section 12 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962) should be increased and that circumstances exist which render it necessary to take immediate action, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, direct an amendment of that Schedule to be made so as to provide for an increase in the import duty leviable on such article to such extent as it thinks necessary : Provided that the Central Government shall not iss....
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....e exported from Pakistan, they will be classifiable under a separate tariff heading 98060000 and will be chargeable to tariff rate of 200% duty and if not, they will be classified as per the tariff and will be charged to applicable duties read with any exemptions. 5. The question which we have to answer in this appeal is as follows: "Given the factual matrix of this case, were the imported goods of Afghanistan origin imported from Afghanistan to India transiting through Pakistan as asserted by the appellant and hence chargeable to NIL rate of duty OR were they exported from Pakistan and hence chargeable to 200% duty as decided in the impugned order?" 6. According to the appellant, it imported the goods from Herat in Afghanistan to Inland Container Depot, Tughlakabad, Delhi. Since Afghanistan is a land-locked country, they were transported by road upto Chaman in Afghanistan-Pakistan border and then were again transported by another truck from Chaman to Karachi port from where they were stuffed in a container under Customs supervision and shipped to ICD, Tughlakabad via Nhava Sheva port. Therefore, the goods were of Afghanistan origin and hence were fully exempted by N....
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....entions Nhava Sheva as the Port of Discharge and ICD Tughlakabad as place of delivery. (h) Thus, the transportation from Herat upto the Chaman border was done by a different organisation and transport from Chaman border to Karachi was under Custom bonded truck by Bolan Logistics and transport from Karachi Port to Nhava Sheva by sea was by Blue World Shipping Agencies and as per the standard practice, all containers from Nhava Sheva destined to ICD Tughlakabad are transported by Rail by the public sector undertaking Container Corporation of India (CONCOR). (i) Since the goods were of Afghanistan origin the appellant is entitled to full exemption from the duty under the exemption notification. (j) The goods only transited through Pakistan and have not been exported from Pakistan and therefore, duty @200% cannot be charged. (k) The Principal Commissioner has denied the benefit of the notification for the reason that the Bill of Lading mentioned Port of Loading as Karachi- Pakistan which is not correct because the Bill of Lading was issued on behalf of the Carrier who shipped the goods in a container from Karachi to Nhava Sheva and the goods were car....
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....e submitted by the appellant was not signed by the Pakistan Customs authorities. (d) The Bill of Lading does not mention Herat, Afghanistan but mentions Karachi, Pakistan as the Port of Loading. (e) The denial of the benefit of the exemption notification and demand of duty, confiscation of the goods, and imposition of penalty are therefore, correct and proper and call for no interference. 9. We have considered the submissions on both sides and perused the records. 10. In the impugned order, the Principal Commissioner has not accepted the contention of the appellant that the goods were of Afghanistan origin and have been exported from Afghanistan for the reason that the Bill of Lading issued by the Shipping Line clearly indicated that the Port of Loading was Karachi and NOT Herat or any other place in Afghanistan. The Bill of Lading is the document of title. It is issued by the Master of the Vessel or his agent, say, the Shipping Agent, acknowledging receipt of the goods. It indicates what has been received (say, container number so and so) and what it is said to contain, how it is sealed (seal number, etc.). If there are any remarks about the condition of th....
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....rce and Industries and the exporter itself cannot issue documents on the same date. There is no basis for formation of such a suspicion by the Principal Commissioner on this ground. The benefit of the exemption notification could not have been denied on this basis. 12. The Principal Commissioner further observed that the Transport Note and the Trip Duration Report (which cover the movement of goods in the truck from Afghanistan Pakistan border at Chaman to the Port of Karachi) had no signatures of the Customs officer of the Port of Destination. 13. Learned counsel submitted that the Port of Destination is Nhava Sheva or ICD Tughlakabad and hence they could not have been signed by the officer at Karachi. 14. We disagree. These documents cover only the movement of the goods in a bonded truck from Chaman (Afghanistan-Pakistan border) to Karachi by transporter M/s. Bolan Logistics. Therefore, insofar as these two documents are concerned, the port of destination is Karachi which is then the Port of Loading in the Bill of Lading issued by the Shipping Line. While these documents were signed at Chaman by the Pakistan Customs Officer, they were not signed by the Pakistan Customs O....
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....ported from Afghanistan on 16.02.2022 through the border at Chaman on 21.02.2022 in a Customs bonded truck were examined at Karachi port by the Customs Officers on 25.02.2022. The Container Number and other details in this document match with the Bill of Lading issued by the Shipping Line on the basis of which the Bill of Entry was filed by the appellant importer. This document also mentions the Truck No. and seal under which the goods had moved under Customs bond from Chaman (Afghanistan- Pakistan border) to Karachi Port. In our considered view, the chain of documents is complete to establish that the origin of the goods was Afghanistan and that they were exported from Afghanistan, transited through Pakistan, stuffed in a container in Karachi Port and transhipped in a vessel to India. 18. Two other grounds of suspicion by the Principal Commissioner are that the Transit Certificate was not signed by the Pakistan Customs Officer and the Bill of Lading does not indicate the place of receipt of the goods and only mentions the Port of Loading as Karachi. We note that the Transit Certificate was issued by the Afghanistan authorities and not by Pakistan authorities. While the appellan....