2025 (8) TMI 100

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....llant to deposit Rs.6,81,839/- as 1% of the assessable value for initiation of investigation by Special Valuation Board (SVB). Investigations were completed on 11.07.2016 and it was informed by Deputy Commissioner of Customs that the value declared for assessment was correct transaction value and no additional customs duty was required to be recovered from the appellant/importer. Therefore, the appellant sought for refund of Rs.6,81,839/- through an application dated 30.09.2019 which was rejected by original authority through original order dated 05.03.2021 stating that the refund had been barred by limitation. Aggrieved by the order of the original authority, appellant preferred appeal before learned Commissioner (Appeals) who through impu....

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....er Section 27 of the Customs Act, 1962 is beyond the period of limitation prescribed under the provision i.e., beyond one year. 14. Therefore the short question before us is whether EDD constitutes a payment in the nature of customs duty under the scope of Section 27 of the Customs Act, 1962. This issue is no longer res integra. Firstly, Circular No.5/2016-Customs dated 9th February, 2016, as submitted by the Petitioner, expressly clarifies that payment collected after provisional assessment for the release of goods shall be in the form of 'security deposit'. The relevant paragraphs of the circular are read as under: "3.2 The Board has reviewed the practice relating to levy of 'Extra Duty Deposits' (EDD) in cases where....

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....period not exceeding the next three months. Simultaneously, the importer shall be granted a further period of 60 days to comply with the requisition for information & documents. If the importer fails to submit documents within this extended period, the Commissioner in charge of SVB may consider the use of other provisions of the Customs Act for obtaining documents / information from an importer for conducting investigations. In no case shall the imposition of Security Deposit exceed the period of three months specified above. Furthermore, the Board has also decided that the importer would be free to choose whether the Security Deposit to be provided for the purposes of provisional assessment shall be by way of cash deposit or a Bank Guarant....