2025 (2) TMI 1303
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.... M/s BenQ India Private Limited, Thane (herein after, referred to as "the respondents/respondent importer"). 2. Respondent importer has filed this miscellaneous application bearing No.85666 of 2024 on 24.05.2024, seeking for issue of directions by the Tribunal under Rule 41 of the CESTAT (Procedure) Rules, 1982, for provisional assessment of future bills of entries in connection with the import of "Interactive Flat Panel' (IFP) by them under the classification decided by the learned Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) in the impugned order, during the pendency of the appeal before the Tribunal. On careful perusal of the request made in the aforesaid miscellaneous application and the provisions of Rule 41 ibid, it transpires that it provides for issue of orders or giving directions by the Tribunal to give effect to its order(s) or in relation to its orders; Since, there is no final order passed by the Tribunal as on the date of hearing, there is no ground for entertaining such miscellaneous application by this Tribunal. Accordingly, the miscellaneous application filed by the respondent-importer is dismissed. 3.1 Brief facts of the case, leading to this appeal, are su....
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....Commissioners of Customs in Review Order dated 28.04.2023, Revenue has filed this appeal before the Tribunal. 4. Authorized Representative (AR) appearing for Revenue in reiterating the grounds of appeal had submitted that in terms of Rule 3(a) of the General Rules for Interpretation of the Customs Tariff, the heading which provides most specific description shall be preferred to heading providing a more general description; the main function of the BENQ Interactive Flat Panel is interaction through display having display qualities, touch screen, write or draw screen etc., Therefore he claimed that the subject goods cannot be considered as ADP machine under CTH 8471. Further, he relied upon the decision of the Tribunal in the case of Commissioner of Customs (Import & Export), New Delhi Vs. Integral Computer Ltd. - 2016 (337) E.L.T. 580 (Tri. Del.) to state that the interactive electronic white board was classified under sub-heading 8528 5100 and therefore the classification adopted by the department is appropriate. Therefore, he prayed that the impugned order is liable to be set aside and the appeal filed by Revenue may be allowed. 5.1 On the other hand, Learned Ad....
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....ported by the respondents during the period 31.03.2021 to 28.07.2021 as to whether, the same merits classification under Customs Tariff Item (CTI) 8471 4190 as claimed by the respondents; or, is it classifiable under Customs Tariff Heading (CTI) 8528 5900 as claimed by the Revenue, for deciding on the appropriate levy of customs duty, in respect of various Bills of Entries filed during the disputed period. Further, it is also required to be decided whether the confirmation of the classification claimed by the respondents by setting aside the orders of original authority by the learned Commissioner (Appeals) in the impugned order is legally sustainable. 8.1 In order to address the above issue of classification of imported goods, we would like to refer the relevant legal provisions contained in Section 12 of the Customs Act, 1962; the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 and rules framed thereunder for consideration of proper and appropriate classification of the subject goods under dispute. Customs Act, 1962 "Section 12. Dutiable goods. - (1) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, or any other law for the time being in force, duties of customs shall be lev....
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....IFF (Refer Section 2) THE GENERAL RULES FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF IMPORT TARIFF (GIR) Classification of goods in this Schedule shall be governed by the following principles: 1. The titles of Sections, Chapters and sub-chapters are provided for ease of reference only; for legal purposes, classification shall be determined according to the terms of the headings and any relative Section or Chapter Notes and, provided such headings or Notes do not otherwise require, according to the following provisions: 2. (a) Any reference in a heading to an article shall be taken to include a reference to that article incomplete or unfinished, provided that, as presented, the incomplete or unfinished articles has the essential character of the complete or finished article. It shall also be taken to include a reference to that article complete or finished (or falling to be classified as complete or finished by virtue of this rule), presented unassembled or disassembled. (b) Any reference in a heading to a material or substance shall be taken to include a reference to mixtures or combinations of that material or substance with oth....
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....ported goods for its correct classification under the First Schedule to Customs Tariff Act, 1975 in accordance with the provisions of the Customs Tariff Act by duly following the General Rules for Interpretation (GIR) and the General Explanatory notes (GEN) contained therein. The First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 specifies the various categories of imported goods in a systematic and well-considered manner, in accordance with an international scheme of classification of internationally traded goods, i.e., 'Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System' (HS). Accordingly, goods are to be classified taking into consideration the scope of headings / sub-headings, related Section Notes, Chapter Notes and the General Rules for the Interpretation (GIR) of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. Rule 1 of the GIR provides that the classification of goods shall be determined according to the terms of the headings of the tariff and any relative Section notes or Chapter notes and thus, gives precedence to this while classifying a product. Rules 2 to 6 provide the general guidelines for classification of goods under the appropriate subheading. In....
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....nbsp; xxx xxx xxx 3. Unless the context otherwise requires, composite machines consisting of two or more machines fitted together to form a whole and other machines designed for the purpose of performing two or more complementary or alternative functions are to be classified as if consisting only of that component or as being that machine which performs the principal function. CHAPTER 84 Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances; parts thereof Notes : xxx xxx xxx xxx 5. (A) For the purposes of heading 8471, the expression "automatic data processing machine" means machine capable of : (i) storing the processing programme or programmes and at least the data immediately necessary for the execution of the programme; (ii) being freely programmed in accordance with the requirements of the user; (iii) performing arithmetical computations specified by the user; and (iv) executing, without human intervention, a processing programme whi....
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....ta processing machines, weighing not more than 10 kg., consisting of at least a central processing unit, a keyboard and a display : 8471 30 10 --- Personal computer 8471 30 90 --- Other - Other automatic data processing machines : 8471 41 -- Comprising in the same housing at least a central processing unit and an input and output unit, whether or not combined : 8471 41 10 --- Micro computer 8471 41 20 --- Large or main frame computer 8471 41 90 --- Other 8471 49 00 -- Other, presented in the form of systems xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx And Tariff Item Description of goods (1) (2) 8528 Monitors and projectors, not incorporating television reception apparatus; reception apparatus for television, whether or not incorporating radiobroadcast receivers or sound or video recording or reproducing apparatus - Cathode-ray tube monitors: 8528 4....
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....ry of the goods i.e., 'other monitors' covered under two sub-headings of 8528 52 or 8528 59 are for LCD monitors, LED monitors etc. which use a series of small light emitting diodes to illuminate the display screen, as opposed to the conventional cathode-ray tubes of the old technology. Therefore, it clearly transpires that CTH 8528 covers monitors and projectors, not having the features of ADP machine. 9.5 On the other hand, heading 8471 covers within its scope and ambit, all types of Automatic Data Processing machines (ADPs) and its units thereof. Further, other machines for processing of data such as transcribing data on to data media in coded form etc., are also included in this heading. The sub-classification of the goods under this heading is given as follows: (i) Portable ADPs including personal computers are covered under subheading 8471 30; (ii) Other type of ADPs are covered under sub-heading 8471 40 and the tariff items are provided for sub-classification of goods in detail there under; (iii) Processing units; input, output units and storage units to ADPs are covered under sub-heading 8471 50, 8471 60 and 8471 70 respectively and....
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....) being freely programmed in accordance with the requirements of the user; (iii) performing arithmetical computations specified by the user; and (iv) executing, without human intervention, a processing programme which requires them to modify their execution, by logical decision during the processing run, are fulfilled by the Interactive Flat Panels, which have been imported by the respondents in the present case. From the above analysis, we are of the considered view that the impugned goods are appropriately classifiable under CTI 8471 4190. 11.1 We find that in the identical set of the facts in the case of Cloudwalker Streaming Technologies Private Limited (supra), this Tribunal had examined the issue of correct classification of 'Interactive intelligence panel' and the BCD exemption available to such goods, and have held that these are classifiable under Heading 84.71. The relevant paragraphs in the said order is extracted and given below: "5. The two rival descriptions are: 'automatic data processing machines' 'comprising in the same housing at least a central processing unit and an input and output unit' not being portable machin....
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...., thus '3. It is not in dispute before us, as it cannot be, that the onus of establishing that the said rings fell within Item 22F lay upon the Revenue. The Revenue led no evidence. The onus was not discharged. Assuming therefore, that the Tribunal was right in rejecting the evidence that was produced on behalf of the appellants, the appeal should, nonetheless, have been allowed. ** ** ** 7. Learned Counsel for the Revenue submitted that the matter be remanded to the Tribunal so that the evidence on record may be reappreciated. As we have stated, no evidence was led on behalf of the Revenue. There is, therefore, no good reason to remand the matter.' to stipulate that it is for the customs authorities to first establish the appropriateness of the classification proposed by them before substituting that claimed by an importer. 7. Furthermore, it is clear from '1. ....for legal purposes, classification shall be determined according to the terms of the headings and any relative Section or Chapter Notes...' of the General Rules for Interpretation of the Import Tariff that comparison is permi....
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.... etc., satisfy the conditions of Chapter Note 5(A) to Chapter 84 and thus are correctly classified under 8471 9000 and not under 8528 5200. The relevant paragraphs in the said order are extracted and given below: 3. The issue in both the appeals is regarding classification of the goods namely (i) (View Board) ViewSonic IFP6550-2/65" Interactive Display System; and (ii) (View Board)-ViewSonic-IFP7550-2/75" Interactive Display System. The appellant claims that the classification would be under Customs Tariff Item3 8471 41 90, though, earlier at the time of self-assessment, the appellant had claimed it to be under CTI 8471 90 00. The Department claims that it should be under CTI 8528 52 00. The Deputy Commissioner rejected the self-assessment done by the appellant under CTI 8471 90 00 and ordered for re-assessment of the goods under CTI 8528 52 00. The case set up by the appellant at the time of assessment was that the goods were Automatic Data Processing Machines4 and not Monitors and, therefore, classifiable under CTI 8471 90 00 and not under CTI 8528 52 00. At the appellate stage, the appellant contended, on a re-consideration of the matter, that the goods were more specif....
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....o. (i) of Chapter Note 5(A) to Chapter 84. 19. The goods come with a pre-installed operating system, namely, Android 7.0. The said Android version is a customized operating system for these IFP. Further, the goods also have an OPS slot. With the use of the OPS Slot, additional hardware can be connected to the goods and the OPS Slot can also be used for installing other operating software such as Windows, etc. on the goods. Thus, the goods are machines on which the user is able to load and execute a program. In other words, the goods are capable of executing any application/program which is stored on its memory. A user can, with the use of either Android or other operating systems, download and install new programmes in accordance with their needs and usage. Thus, goods are machines which can be freely programmed in accordance with the need of the user and hence, satisfy condition (ii) of Chapter Note 5(A) to Chapter 84. 20. The goods are capable of performing arithmetical computations depending on the input provided by the user. The goods are equipped with a calculator to perform arithmetical computations. It has also been admitted by the Deputy Commissioner in pa....
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