2025 (11) TMI 541

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....10,00,021/- in respect of import of non-coking coal in bulk imported under two Bills of Entry (BOE) both dated 9.6.2011. The BOE's were self-assessed to customs duty by adding 2% high sea sales commission on CIF value. The duty paid was contested by the appellant, by filing the said refund claims, on the ground that the BOE's should have been assessed by adding the actual 'Trade Margin' of Rs.33/- per MT paid to MMTC, along with the CIF value and hence the excess paid customs duty is to be refunded. On perusal of their refund claim and the worksheet enclosed therein, it was held that the said margin of profit of Rs.33/- per MT arrived was not disclosed to the department. Revenue further observed that the appellant's contention that the bill....

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....e department and the assessment should have been corrected. The appellant's claim for refund of excess duty was rejected in 2015 on the grounds that the issue was not raised during assessment. The appellant filed an application for refund under the bonafide belief that post 08.04.2011 when section 27 of the customs act was amended, the need for challenging the assessment - that too self-assessment - was not there. When the refund application was rejected, appeal before the Commissioner Appeal was also dismissed. Now the appeal before this Honorable CESTAT has come up hearing now, after 10 years. The governing case law on the subject has since evolved, particularly with the ruling in ITC Ltd. vs. Commissioner of Customs (2021). The Ld. C....

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....ressing assessment and amendments to assessment or reassessment under Sections 17 and 128 of the Customs Act, 1962, hence the change in self-assessment now being sought after filing a refund claim may be rejected. 6. We have heard the rival parties and have perused the appeals and all connected documents. We have also gone through the Miscellaneous Application for amending the BOE. We find that this is a case of self-assessment where the appellant subsequently claimed refund on the ground that they had mistakenly added a notional 2% as High Sea sale charges to the CIF value instead of the actual Rs.33 per MT as per the Purchase order which was also available to the department at the time of assessment. We find that Borads Circular No. 32....

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....trial court and the appellate court in a criminal trial and held: "30. This Court in Shyam Sel & Power Ltd. Vs Shyam Steel Industries Ltd. reported in (2023) 1 SCC 634 observed that the hierarchy of the trial court and the appellate court exists so that the trial court exercises its discretion upon the settled principles of law. An appellate court, after the findings of the trial court are recorded, has an advantage of appreciating the view taken by the trial judge and examining the correctness or otherwise thereof within the limited area available. It further observed that if the appellate court itself decides the matters required to be decided by the trial court, there would be no necessity to have the hierarchy of courts. ....