TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (7) TMI 1423
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...., appellant had approached the Hon'ble High Court of Kerala in WP(C) No.24779 of 2008 to direct the Department for release of the goods. The Hon'ble High Court vide order dated 18.08.2008 directed the respondent to release the goods to appellant on furnishing a bank guarantee. However, respondent failed to comply with the order and the appellant again approached the Hon'ble High Court and filed Writ Petition No. 25947 of 2008. The Customs Authority made a submission before the Hon'ble High Court that there is a disparity between the items packed and the item declared in the bill of entry. To ascertain the facts Hon'ble High Court appointed an Advocate Commissioner vide order dated 19.09.2008. The Advocate Commissioner conducted inspection of the goods for 3(three) days and submitted a report stating that the inspection revealed only minor discrepancy and also informed that few products in the packing list were missing. The appellant submitted that the reason for the discrepancy is solely because the list had been prepared on the basis of inventory list and not on the basis of physical verification of the goods in the warehouse. The Customs authority proceeded with the valuation thr....
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....ia Television (P) Ltd. reported as 2007 (214) E.L.T. 3 (S.C.), however, the Adjudication Authority has not considered the law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Learned counsel draws our attention to Para 6 & 8 of the judgement which is reproduced below:- "6. We do not find any merit in this civil appeal for the following reasons. Value is derived from the price. Value is the function of the price. This is the conceptual meaning of value. Under Section 2(41), "value" is defined to mean value determined in accordance with Section 14(1) of the Act. Section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962 is the sole repository of law governing valuation of goods. The Customs Valuation Rules, 1988 have been framed only in respect of imported goods. There are no rules governing the valuation of export goods. That must be done based on Section 14 itself. In the present case, the Department has charged the respondent-importer alleging mis-declaration regarding the price. There is no allegation of mis-declaration in the context of the description of the goods. In the present case, the allegation is of under-invoicing. The charge of under-invoicing has to be supported by evidence of prices of contempora....
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....aluation cannot be supported either by evidence or information about comparable imports, the benefit of doubt must go to the importer. If the Department wants to allege under-valuation, it must make detailed inquiries, collect material and also adequate evidence. When under-valuation is alleged, the Department has to prove it by evidence or information about comparable imports. For proving under-valuation, if the Department relies on declaration made in the exporting country, it has to show how such declaration was procured. We may clarify that strict rules of evidence do not apply to adjudication proceedings. They apply strictly to the courts' proceedings. However, even in adjudication proceedings, the AO has to examine the probative value of the documents on which reliance is placed by the Department in support of its allegation of under-valuation. Once the Department discharges the burden of proof to the above extent by producing evidence of contemporaneous imports at higher price, the onus shifts to the importer to establish that the invoice relied on by him is valid. Therefore, the charge of under-invoicing has to be supported by evidence of prices of contemporaneous imports o....
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....report submitted by the Chartered Engineer, the learned counsel submitted that the Chartered Engineer has over looked the provisions of Rule 9 of the Customs Valuation Rules and relied on the market value of goods in India. He draws our attention to the following paragraphs of the report submitted by the Chartered Engineer; Being imported items and sold through selected retail outlets in our country, prices for such items vary considerably from shop to shop which therefore does not render an authentic basis for determining current local market prices on a very fair and reasonable scale as warranted for this exercise. Hence, a judicious and justifiable valuation has been done, taking into account the average of prices assessed as above and with reference to the cost of similar indigenous items. The undersigned believes that this may be the preferred methodology in this peculiar circumstance. While almost fair and reasonable pricing could be arrived at for majority of items covered in this consignment, certain assumptions and presumptions have become inevitable in respect of some of the items such as glass wares of unique designs and special quality, showpieces etc. However, best....
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....liminarily, when details were sought, manufacturer of the goods informed that the value of the imported RCR products are lower than the market value of the goods. Based on the above email and data from Internet, further investigation was carried out. However, on inspection of the goods by Advocate Commissioner appointed by the Hon'ble High Court of Kerala, it is found that there is no such mis-declaration regarding quantity as alleged. There is no such finding in impugned order as well. 9. Regarding the valuation, if respondent has reasons to believe that the value declared by the appellant is lower than the actual value of at least one brand i.e. RCR, investigation officer ought to have directed local agent of RCR in India M/s Homemaker Enterprises, Haryana to disclose the import price of the said goods, when imported by them rather than taking assistance from Chartered Engineer as was done in the present case. Regarding the report submitted by the Chartered Engineer, the Chartered Engineer relied on the market value of goods in India to ascertain the assessable value. In view of above facts, the method adopted by respondent to reject the transaction value based on such report of....