TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (7) TMI 19
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.... Commissioner, Customs(Airport and General), New Delhi in which he held that the appellant had violated regulation 10(n) of Customs Brokers Licensing Regulations [CBLR], 2018 and therefore, revoked its Customs Broker Licence, under Regulation 14 & 18 read with Regulation 17(7), forfeited its security deposit and imposed a penalty of Rs. 50,000/-. 2. The factual matrix which lead up to the issue of this order is that the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management [DGARM] of the Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs analysed the data and identified risky exporters involved in execution of frauds and got requisite verification done by the jurisdictional GST officers and identified exporters who could not be found at all physic....
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....ulation 10(n) of CBLR, 2018? b) If the answer to (a) above is affirmative, can the revocation of licence of the appellant customs broker be sustained? c) If the answer to (a) above is affirmative, is the forfeiture of security deposit correct? d) If the answer to (a) above is affirmative, is the imposition of penalty of Rs. 50,000/- upon the appellant customs broker correct? Alleged violations of Regulation 10 (n) 5. The allegation in the show cause notice and the finding in the impugned order that the appellant had violated Regulation 10(n) is based on the fact that the appellant had filed shipping Bills in the name of some exporters who the DGARM found suspicious. Of these, physical verification was done in respect of three export....
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.... 6. In other words, the jurisdictional officers do not deny that they had issued the GSTIN to the above three exporters although they had not existed at all subsequently at the time of verification. It is also clear that M/s. RG Enterprises had also availed input Tax Credit (ITC) under GST after being registered with GST. M/s. Shree Radhe Vallabh Traders had not only availed ITC but had also filed GST returns including showing some tax liability. Insofar as G S Industries is concerned, the jurisdictional officer denied NOC (no objection certificate). We find nothing in the Customs Act or CBLR, 2018 requires any NOC from any officer to either export goods or for any Customs Broker to file a Shipping Bill. Therefore, this part of the report i....
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....n obligation on the Customs Broker to oversee and ensure the correctness of the actions by the Government officers. Therefore, the verification of documents part of the obligation under Regulation 10(n) on the Customs Broker is fully satisfied as long as the Customs Broker satisfies itself that the IEC and the GSTIN were, indeed issued by the concerned officers. This can be done through online verification, comparing with the original documents, etc. and does not require an investigation into the documents by the Customs Broker. The presumption is that a certificate or registration issued by an officer or purported to be issued by an officer is correctly issued. Section 79 of the Evidence Act, 1872 requires even Courts to presume that every....
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....t the IEC, the GSTIN and other documents were issued by the officers. So, there is no violation as far as the documents are concerned. 10. The third obligation under Regulation 10(n) requires the Customs Broker to verify the identity of the client using reliable, independent, authentic documents, data or information. In other words, he should know who the client is and the client cannot be some fictitious person. This identity can be established by independent, reliable, authentic: a) documents; b) data; or c) information 11. Any of the three methods can be employed by the Customs Broker to establish the identity of his client. It is not necessary that to only collect information or launch an investigation. So long as it can find so....
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....that there is no such obligation in Regulation 10(n), it will be extremely difficult, if not, totally impossible, for the Customs Broker to physically visit the premises of each of its clients for verification. The Regulation, in fact, gives to the Customs Broker the option of verifying using documents, data or information. If there are authentic, independent and reliable documents or data or information to show that the client is functioning at the declared address, this part of the obligation of the Customs Broker is fulfilled. If there are documents issued by the Government Officers which show that the client is functioning at the address, it would be reasonable for the Customs Broker to presume that the officer is not wrong and that the....