AI OCR 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (4) TMI 804
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....he Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise (Appeals) dated 20.03.2020 permitting the amendment of shipping bills to indicate as Duty Free Import Authorisation (DFIA) Scheme as against free shipping bill. 2. The respondent had made two sets of applications for DFIA license before the Joint Director General for import of 1000 MT and 5 MT of raw cashew nuts. The shipping bills were filed through the Customs Broker and while filing shipping bills, the respondent had selected the code "00", which pertains to free shipping instead of "26", which is the code for DFIA scheme. After the completion of the export, the respondent submitted a letter dated 26.12.2018 requesting to amend the shipping bills and to modify the option as DFIA scheme aga....
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....jection to consider the request for conversion of the shipping bill which was filed as free export to one under the DFIA scheme beyond the time limit prescribed under the board circular, be held as incorrect, particularly, when the same has also been upheld by the appellate authority? (v) Whether the Tribunal is correct in entertaining an application filed at any point in time for conversion to the beneficial DFIA scheme stating that there is no such time limit prescribed in the act. (vi) Whether the Tribunal is correct in placing reliance on the judgment in the case of Autotech Industries (India) Pvt., ltd., reported in 2022(380) E.L.T., 364 (Tri.Chennai) which deals with conversion of Free Shipping Bill to Drawback Shipp....
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.... Act 1962 and that the said provision does not prescribe any time frame and therefore a circular cannot prescribe a time frame and go beyond the provision under the Act. It was further submitted that DGFT had allotted specific file numbers under DFIA based on the applications submitted by the respondent and the Customs Broker while filing the shipping bills indicated a wrong billing code by entering the same as "00" instead of "26". This inadvertent mistake was sought to be corrected by the respondent and it was well within the powers under Section 149 of the Customs Act. 9. The learned Senior Counsel in order to substantiate his submission, relied upon the following judgments: (i) CC v. Diamond Engineering (Chennai) Pvt., Ltd.,....
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.... the respondent had sought for the amendment of the shipping bills during December 2018, was beyond the period of three months stipulated as limitation by the circular. 13. The judgments that were relied upon by the Senior Standing counsel are cases where the exporter had attempted for conversion of one scheme to another scheme and it was held by the Delhi High Court and the Gujarat High Court that it falls within the proviso to Section 149 and unless such amendment is sought for based on documentary evidence in existence at the time when the goods are exported, the same cannot be allowed. The Court also took into consideration the fact that such amendment of shipping bills cannot be sought for after the lapse of a long period of time af....
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....ether the respondent was attempting to convert the shipping bills from one scheme to another, which is impermissible both under the circular as well as the first proviso to Section 149 of the Customs Act. 18. On a close scrutiny of the materials placed before this Court, it is seen that the respondent had made applications for DFIA license before the Joint Director General for the import of the raw cashew nuts and such permission was also granted and files were opened by providing the DFIA file numbers. When the Customs Broker submitted the bills, he had mentioned the billing code as "00" instead of "26". The concerned shipping bills which forms part of the paper book clearly shows that the shipment was under DFIA license when the export....