TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (2) TMI 1321
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....19 (herein after, referred to as 'the impugned orders') passed by the learned Commissioner of Customs (Appeals), Mumbai Customs Zone-III, Mumbai. 2.1 Brief facts of the case are that the appellants are engaged inter alia, in importation of various goods. During the disputed period from March, 2019 to June, 2019, the appellants have filed total 971 Bills of Entry (B/Es) for clearance of various imported goods, claiming exemption from import duty provided under Notification No. 24/2015-Cus. dated 08.04.2015 by producing Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) scrips. The B/Es were assessed by the Customs authorities at the port of import, in providing the exemption with regard to the Basic Customs Duty (BCD) and Additional duties of Customs (CVD) as per the said notification, by indicating the applicable rate of duty as "0" (Zero) in these B/Es and by debiting the amount of BCD as duty foregone by debiting the MEIS scrips. However, the department had assessed Social Welfare Surcharge (SWS) at the rate of 10% and insisted for payment of the said amount, as there was no specific exemption from payment of SWS in the said notification No.24/2015-Cus. The said amount of duty assess....
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....CD is paid through MEIS scrip and thus he concluded that SWS is also payable in these cases. 3.2 Learned Advocate has relied upon the Order of this Tribunal in the case of Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Vs. Reliance Industries Limited - 2005 (188) E.L.T. 449 which was upheld by the Hon'ble High Court of Bombay in 2015 (322) E.L.T. 121, to state that when there is exemption from payment of Basic Customs duty, then there is no collection of the SWS. Similarly, he also placed reliance on the ratio of the judgement of Hon'ble High Court of Bombay on the same set of facts in the case of LA TIM Metal & Industries Limited Vs. The Union of India and Ors. in Writ Petition No.12183 of 2022, wherein it was held that SWS is payable at 10% on BCD but where the BCD is 'Nil', SWS shall also be computed 'Nil'. Learned Advocate further placed reliance on the Final Order of this Tribunal dated 30.08.2023 in the case of Tata Motors Limited Vs. Commissioner of Customs (Import), JNCH, Mumbai. 4.1 On the other hand, learned Authorized Representative appearing for Revenue has submitted that the BCD amount was quantified and debited in MEIS scrip in respect of the impugned goods and thus BCD is not....
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....ustoms Tariff Act, 1972. For ease of reference, the relevant section of the Customs Act, 1962 and Customs Tariff Act, 1972 are extracted and given below: Customs Act, 1962: "Section 12. Dutiable goods. - (1) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, or any other law for the time being in force, duties of customs shall be levied at such rates as may be specified under the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (51 of 1975), or any other law for the time being in force, on goods imported into, or exported from, India. (2) The provisions of sub-section (1) shall apply in respect of all goods belonging to Government as they apply in respect of goods not belonging to Government." "Section 25. Power to grant exemption from duty. - (1) If the Central Government is satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, exempt generally either absolutely or subject to such conditions (to be fulfilled before or after clearance) as may be specified in the notification goods of any specified description from the whole or any part of duty of customs leviable thereon. (2) If the Central Gov....
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....erms of the above Notification No.24/2015-Customs dated 08.04.2015. 7. Imported goods also attract Social Welfare Surcharge (SWS) in terms of the provisions of Section 110 of the Finance Act, 2018. Sub-section (3) of Section 110 ibid has provided that the SWS shall be calculated at the rate of ten percent on the BCD amount. The relevant legal provisions introduced in the Finance Act, 2018 are as follows: "CHAPTER VI SOCIAL WELFARE SURCHARGE 110. (1) There shall be levied and collected, in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter, for the purposes of the Union, a duty of Customs, to be called a Social Welfare Surcharge, on the goods specified in the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (hereinafter referred to as the Customs Tariff Act), being the goods imported into India, to fulfil the commitment of the Government to provide and finance education, health and social security. (2) The Central Government may, after due appropriation made by Parliament by law in this behalf, utilise such sums of money of the Social Welfare Surcharge levied under this Chapter for the purposes specified in sub-section (1), as it may consider necessa....
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....e of exports as per the shipping bills in free foreign exchange. The incentives are allocated through a MEIS duty credit scrip. This scrip contains the details of the eligible incentives which can be used for payment of customs and central excise duties as provided therein. The MEIS duty scrips and the goods imported against these scrips are freely transferrable. Thus, it is basically an accounting document to demonstrate actual availment of the incentives in terms of the value of goods exported. To illustrate the same, we may say that if the realized FOB value is Rs.20 lakhs and the incentives provided for the scheme is 5% advalorem; then in such case, the importer of the goods shall be eligible for availing the benefit on account of the incentives to the tune of Rs.1 lakh. In other words, the benefit under the scheme will be restricted upto Rs.1 lakh, which is commensurate to the volume of export achieved by the scrip holder. To ensure that the benefit under the MEIS is subject to achievement of the export obligation, though the Central Government has exempted the goods, vide notification dated 08.04.2015 (supra), but have provided various conditions, including the conditions con....
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....ay within the jurisdiction, by special order, or by a Public Notice, and subject to such conditions as may be specified by him, permit import and export through any other sea-port, airport, inland container depot or through any land customs station: Provided further that the exports of notified goods or products transacted through ecommerce platform as listed in Appendix 3C of Appendices and Aayat Niryat Forms of Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020 are undertaken either through the courier mode from airports at Chennai, Mumbai or Delhi or through the Foreign Post Offices at Chennai, Mumbai or New Delhi ; (4) that the said scrip is registered with the Customs Authority at the port of registration specified on the said scrip; (5) that the said scrip is produced before the proper officer of customs at the time of clearance for debit of the duties leviable on the goods and the proper officer of customs taking into account the debits already made under this exemption and debits made under the notification Nos. 20/ 2015 - Central Excise, dated the 8th April, 2015 and 10/ 2015 -Service Tax, dated the 8th April, 2015, shall debit the duties leviable on the goods, but ....
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....er the FTP has not questioned achievement of export turnover and availment of the incentives, the same cannot be questioned by the Customs department. To make it more clear, we may clarify that the Customs department's responsibility is only to ensure that the goods sought to be exempted are imported under the MEIS scheme. The conditions itemized in paragraph 2, containing sub-paras from (1) to (10) are only for the purpose of examination as to whether such exemption is applicable in a particular case upon fulfilment of these conditions under Notification dated 08.04.2015 which has been issued under Section 25 ibid. These conditions shall not in any case would put a bar for payment of SWS which could be 'NIL' on account of its determination under Section 110 of the Finance Act, 2018 or may be exempt by means of any exemption under some other notification issued under Section 110(3) ibid read with Section 25 ibid. 9.3 In the present case, it is not in dispute that the licensing authority has raised any objection with regard to non-observance or non-fulfillment of the conditions mentioned in the notification dated 08.04.2015. Thus, it would not be proper on the part of the Customs....
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....n on the issue of applicability of Social Welfare Surcharge (SWS) on goods that are exempted from basic customs duty or taxes or cesses which are levied as a duty of customs. In absence of any specific exemption on Social Welfare Surcharge, certain field formations have taken a view that Social Welfare Surcharge shall be payable on notional customs duty as determined on Tariff rate. 2. The matter has been examined. Social Welfare Surcharge (SWS) is levied and collected, as a duty of customs, vide Section 110 of the Finance Act, 2018 (13 of 2018) and is calculated at the rate of 10 per cent. on the aggregate of duties, taxes and cesses which are levied and collected by the Central Government as a duty of customs on goods imported into India. 3. In this regard, it may be noted that at present SWS applies at the rate of 10% of the aggregate of customs duties payable on import of goods and not on the value of imported goods. If aggregate customs duty payable is zero on account of an exemption, the SWS shall be computed as 10% of value equal to 'Nil' (as aggregate amount of customs duties payable is zero). Law does not require computation of SWS on a notional customs d....
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....that the goods imported under the concerned Bill of Entry has been cleared with Nil BCD is not disputed. 8. Therefore, in our view if the SWS is payable at 10% on BCD but where the BCD is Nil, SWS shall also be computed Nil. 9. Respondents are directed to refund Rs.22,56,760/- that Petitioner has paid towards Notional Social Welfare Surcharge within 8 weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. 10. Petition accordingly stands disposed." 10.3 We further find that in the appellants own case viz., Commissioner of Customs (Export) Vs. Reliance Industries Ltd.(supra), the Hon'ble High Court of Bombay in respect of Customs appeal No. 12 of 2006 had held that when the customs duty is fully exempt under DEPB scheme, then the education cess that is calculated at 2% on the customs duty also becomes 'Nil'. The relevant paragraphs of the aforesaid judgement is extracted and given below: "8. The Tribunal has in dealing with this controversy referred extensively to the salient features of the DEPB Scheme, relevant provisions of the Finance Act, 2004 and the Exemption Notification dated 22nd April, 2002. The Tribunal has held as under :- ....
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..... The Customs duty is leviable and recoverable. In the light of the exemption it cannot be said that these duties are not legally recoverable. Therefore, the education cess also could have been levied and recovered. The Tribunal's view is therefore, erroneous in law. 10. On the other hand, Mr. Patel appearing on behalf of the respondent assessee submits that the Tribunal's view as taken above has found favour at least with three High Courts in India and in that regard he invites our attention to the judgment of High Court of Gujarat in the case of Gujarat Ambuja Exports Ltd. v. Government of India - 2013 (289) E.L.T. 273 (Guj.) and Commissioner of Customs v. Pasupati Acrylon Ltd. - 2013 (296) E.L.T. 182 (Guj.). He submits that the view taken by Gujarat High Court in Pasupati (supra) has been not interfered with by the Hon'ble Supreme Court and the revenue's appeal is dismissed on 8th May, 2013. 11. The Tribunal's view is endorsed not only by the High Court of Gujarat but equally by the High Court of Madras in Commissioner of Customs, Tuticorin v. DCW Ltd. - 2014 (306) E.L.T. 398 (Mad.) and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in Commissioner of C.Ex., Visakhapatnam v.....
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....find that the Hon'ble High Court of Gujarat in the case of Commissioner of Customs Vs. Pasupathi Acrylon Ltd., reported in 2013 (296) E.L.T. 182 (Guj.) had held that when the Government had provided full exemption from payment of customs duty and additional duty under Notification No. 32/2005, then there is no Education Cess payable on such clearances. The relevant paragraphs of the aforesaid judgement is extracted and given below: "6. Though three different questions have been framed, central issue is single, namely, whether on imports made by an importer which otherwise qualify for exemption from payment of customs duty and additional duty under Exemption Notification No. 32/2005, would still be liable to pay Education Cess on such basic duty of customs and additional duty on the ground that such duty-free imports were being made under DEPB scheme. The case of the Revenue before the Tribunal was that in view of the Circular of C.B.E. & C., dated 31-1-2005, such imports when made under DEPB scheme, though may enjoy exemption from payment of Customs and additional duty if the conditions of Exemption Notification No. 32/2005 are satisfied, nevertheless, the importers would ....
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....me, there is total or partial, as the case may be, exemption in payment of customs duty. At the relevant time, for the goods other than edible oil, such exemption was total. For edible oil, such exemption was to the extent of 50% of the customs duty and additional duty payable. In essence, therefore, for imports made under the DEPB scheme, of course, subject to the conditions specified in the exemption notification, the customs duty was exempt. Merely because the conditions provided for adjustment of credit in the DEPB scrips, it cannot be stated that either there was no exemption from payment of customs duty or that the Central Government was levying and collecting customs duty from the importers in form of adjustment of credit in the DEPB scrips. We may recall that such credits are given at specified rates on the basis of SION norms primarily taking into account deemed import contents of an export product and the basic customs duty payable on such deemed imports. Thus through such adjustments on the DEPB scrips at the time of further imports, customs duty component is sought to be neutralised. The view expressed by the Tribunal in the case of Reliance Industries Ltd. (supra) appe....
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....under DEPB scheme cannot be treated as exempted goods. It can only be treated as duty-paid goods. 24. With respect, we are unable to concur with such a view. Firstly, in the said decision, the question of levy of Education Cess was not involved. More particularly in our view, the exemption Notification No. 45/2002 is issued under the exercise of powers under Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1962. Such notification grants total exemption from payment of customs duty and additional duty on all goods other than edible oils which are imported under DEPB scheme. It is, of course, subject to conditions specified in the notification itself. Such conditions require adjustment of the credit in the DEPB scrip against the customs duty liability. However, such adjustment is only procedural in nature. As noted earlier, para 7.14 of the Export-Import Policy clearly provided that the exporter who does not desire to go through the licensing route would have an optional facility of being governed under the DEPB scheme. 25. We may note that in cases of Advance Licence Schemes under which imports are being made and which are exempt from customs duty under various notifications issued ....
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....ssue in the present case, on similar set of facts in the case Tata Motors Limited Vs. Commissioner of Customs (Import), wherein it was held in the Final Order dated 30.08.2023 that demand of SWS is not legally sustainable. 11.1 Reliance placed by learned AR for Revenue on the letter dated 14.11.2022 of the Ministry of Finance has no relevance to the case in hand, inasmuch as no clarification was furnished therein with regard to levy of SWS on the imported goods. Rather, the said letter has only referred to the Circular No.2/2020-Customs dated 10.01.2020 already issued by CBEC and no clarification with regard to the subject issue was furnished therein. On examination of the said circular dated 10.01.2020, we find that with reference to the judgement of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Unicorn Industries (supra), the Board has clarified that SWS cannot be debited through duty credit scrips and therefore has to be paid by the importer in cash. The case in hand does not relate to debit of any amount towards SWS from the duty scrips; rather, the issue is only confined to claim of 'zero' rated SWS, which has adequately been dealt with in the subsequent Circular No.3/2022-Customs d....
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....00 10% No exemption Rs.2,00,000 Rs.2,00,000 Situation Case 2: BCD at 10% adv. through exemption under Sec.25(1) of Customs Act, 1962 & SWS at 10% 1,00,00,000 Tariff rate @20% Effective rate @10% through Notification Rs.10,00,000 10% No exemption Rs.1,00,000 Rs.1,00,000 Situation Case 3: BCD wholly exempt through exemption under Sec.25(1) of Customs Act, 1962 & SWS at 10% 1,00,00,000 Tariff rate @20% Effective rate @ NIL through Exemption Notification 'NIL/Rs.0' 10% No exemption 'NIL/Rs.0' 'NIL/Rs.0' Situation Case 4: BCD at 20% adv. & SWS wholly exempt through exemption under Sec.25(1) of Customs Act, 1962 read with clause 108 of Finance Bill, 2018/ Sec.110 of Finance Act, 2018 1,00,00,000 Tariff rate @20% No exemption Rs.20,00,000 10% Whole of SWS exempted vide Notification No.11/2018- Customs dt. 02.02.2018 'NIL/Rs.0' 'NIL/Rs.0' The issue involved in the present appeals is categorized under Situation Case No.3 in the above table, where on account of the BCD having been wholly exempted vide notification dated 08.04.2015, the calculation of SWS @ 10% of the basic customs duty would also be 'zero' only. Th....