TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (3) TMI 461
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.... Commissioner has imposed a penalty of Rs. 50,000/- on the appellant. The issue involved in the matter is that appellant being a Customs Broker handled clearance of a consignment of household goods sent by Shri. Khalid Ansari from Qatar. The said Customs Broker job for the aforesaid import was received by the appellant through a freight forwarded Shakeel Ahmed. It is stated, that during the course of an investigation of complaint received from one Mohd Khadim Ansari regarding arbitrary over- charging of customs duty and deviation of Customs Brokers Licencing Regulation, 2013, it came to light that the appellant in the present matter had not obtained any authorization from the importer/exporter for clearance of goods nor was the verification....
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......................................... ................................................................... .................................................................. (n) verify antecedent, correctness of Importer Exporter Code (IEC) number, identity of his client and functioning of his client at the declared address by using reliable, independent, authentic documents, data or information; and " 4. We have heard the learned Advocate Shri R. N. Bandopadhyay as well as the learned Authorized Representative for the department and Shri Tariq Suleman, in the matter and perused the case records. We note that the entire case of the department is built on the basis of the said voluntary statement tendered by the Shri Bibekananda Saha, ....
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.... the rules ibid and upheld the charges as having procured authorization at a later date. The learned appellate authority however dropped the charge of violation of Regulation 11(n) for the reason that the importer/exporter were individuals, lacking IEC and therefore the passport of the importer was enough to establish the identity. He also dismisses the charge of violation of Regulation 17. 6. We have perused the case records at extenso and heard the two sides. 7. We are of the view that the department has sought to make a hyper technical case in the matter. The fact remains that a copy of the passport has been duly supplied at the time of clearance of the household goods. The fact that the passport of the individual was supplied by the C....