2026 (5) TMI 1687

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....ch she dismissed the appeal filed by the appellant and upheld the order dated 30.06.2023 [OIO] passed by the Additional Commissioner imposing, inter alia, penalty of Rs. 3,00,000/- on the appellant under section 114(iii) of the Customs Act, 1962 [Act] 2. I have heard Shri T. Chakrapani, learned consultant for the appellant and Shri Ram Parvesh Prasad, learned authorized representative appearing for the Revenue and perused the records. 3. The appellant, a Customs Broker, had filed six shipping bills on behalf of M/s Sharp Enterprises, the exporter. Suspecting that the export goods were heavily overvalued in order to avail ineligible export benefits, the Special Intelligence and Investigation Branch [SIIB] of the Commissionerate of Cust....

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....t informed the department. He, therefore, prays that the penalty imposed on the appellant under section 114(iii) may to be set aside and this appeal may be allowed. 6. Learned authorized representative for the revenue, on the other hand, asserted that the impugned order is correct and proper and calls for no interference. He draws the attention of the Bench to the fact that the appellant had not all cooperated during the entire investigation against the exporter which should be sufficient evidence of his intentions. Therefore, the penalty imposed on the appellant is justified. He further draws attention of this Bench, paragraph 5.1.3. of the Commissioner (Appeals) order in which she noted that in the Final Order of this Tribunal there wa....

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....dditional Commissioner which would show that the appellant was involved in overvaluing the exports. There is also nothing on record to show that the appellant had knowledge that the export goods were overvalued. 10. The price of any goods is the consideration agreed to between the buyer and the seller. The exporter M/s Sharp Enterprises and the importer abroad decide the prices of goods which is reflected in their documents. The assessing officer assessing the shipping bills or the investigating officer can look into the export of the goods and even re-determine the value under section 14 and the Export Valuation Rules. The appellant, as the customs broker, had no right to either decide the prices of the goods or to question them or to r....