TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (1) TMI 1020
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....ators' but encompasses all, and every, apparatus performing the described function. This is antipodal to the position adopted by the lower authorities, and, in particular, the enunciation by first appellate authority, and now canvassed by Learned Authorized Representative, to the effect that, from the deployment in description corresponding to claimed item [notification 20/2020-Cus dated 9th April 2020 (serial no. 1)] in the notification and as demonstrated by the evolving trend of exemptions for like goods since then, the benefit is limited to the parenthetical exposition therein. On this distinguishment was erected the differential duty of Rs. 36,66,035 held leviable on 'oxygen concentrator', imported vide bill of entry no. 7630674/11.05.2020, at the rate applicable to tariff item 9019 2010 of First Schedule to Customs Tariff Act, 1975. 2. Learned Counsel for appellant informed that the classification declared by them is not in dispute and the indicated intent of assessing authority to deny benefit of exemption had been countered with 'protest' and insistence on 'speaking order' which, he intimated, could not be pressed before payment of duty and clearance owing to the trouble....
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....ication. He also contended that the dictionary relied upon by the first appellate authority was not comparable with the medical dictionaries, such as Oxford Concise Medical Dictionary [Fourth Edition and described as 'splendid' by the Journal of the Institute of Health Education], and other sources such as the entry in Encyclopedia Britannica as well as an article on 'oxygen therapy' from the same publisher, for elaboration as well as endorsement from professional bodies. He relied upon decisions of the Tribunal, in Commissioner of Customs (Preventive), Jodhpur v. Shiv Ganesh Exim [final order no. 58539-58544/2024 dated 2nd September 2024], in Rays Engineering Works v. Commissioner of Customs, New Delhi (ICD TKD) [final order no. 50542/2025 dated 30th April 2025] and in Trina Steelcarb Pvt Ltd v. Commissioner of Customs, New Delhi (ICD TKD) [final order no. 50544/2025 dated 30th April 2025], to point out the infirmity in the assessment by the original authority. 5. Learned Counsel drew attention to the exposition by the Hon'ble High Court of Bombay, rejecting the proposition that specificity of parenthetically enclosed expression in a broader description overrides the generality....
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....velopments as the foundation for interpretation of intent. Those were troubling times and societies beleaguered by the lack of wherewithal to handle the attrition engendered by acute respiratory distress; the reliefs proffered by the jurisdictional governments could not be perceived as anything other than in the broadest of terms covering any available external source of palliative and, more especially, as public health institutions were not geared to give care to all the affected population prompting alternatives for prolongation of life till medical intervention was accessed. Only those who have lived through that apocalyptic phase of human history can appreciate the desperation of governing institutions to aid its dependents but, constrained by the frailty of conventional instruments - drawing upon technical inputs and characterized by impersonal style - that could hardly be re-oriented immediately for catering to the crisis situation, unable to communicate beyond a norm not befitting abnormal times. To persist in strict application, that other times may warrant, is insensitivity to 'humankind crisis' confronting society then. 9. Such peremptoriness would not have been forthc....
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....ms in urging us to read the description as 'ventilator' to affirm denial of exemption to any other goods. However, 'ventilator' is not enumerated, at any level, in the First Schedule to Customs Tariff Act, 1975 and the presence of two headings from First Schedule to Customs Tariff Act, 1975 corresponding to the impugned description in the notification is adequate for inferring that 'ventilator', which, in terms of General Rules for Interpretation of the Import Tariff appended to Customs Tariff Act, 1975, must fall within one or the other, does not control the reach and extent of the impugned description in the notification. Consequently, any apparatus conforming to the elaborated description merits intended exemption and the lower authorities are in error for attempting such narrow and revenue-centric circumscribing in the face of the design of the notification. It only requires us now to ascertain the intent of the parenthetical ensconcing for which the sources cited by Learned Counsel and Learned Authorized Representative in their respective arguments may be of use. 12. 'Oxygen concentrator' is an apparatus that, in a manner of speaking, pedestrianized 'respirators' by substit....