TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (6) TMI 593
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.... Mrs. Seema Bengani, Adv. ORDER 1. The petitioners, inter-alia, challenged the show cause notice issued by the respondents herein wherein preferential rates of duties under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-India Free Treaty Agreement (AIFTA) on the import of copper tubes and pipes, has been rejected. 2. The sole ground for the rejection was that the goods do not satisfy the condition of the Regional Value Content (RVC) of 35%. 3. The High Court by its impugned order relegated the parties to the authority with liberty to raise all pleas in response to the show cause notice and has required the adjudicating authority to pass a reasoned and speaking order. 4. The aggrieved petitioners are before us. The petitioners con....
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....rule 3, a product shall be deemed to be originating, if- (i) the AIFTA content is not less than 35 per cent. Of the FOB value; and (ii) the non-originating materials have undergone at least a change in tariff subheading (CTSH) level i.e. at six digit of the Harmonized System: Provided that the final process of the manufacture is performed within the territory of the exporting party." 9. Rule 13 of the very same Rules deals with Certificate of Origin and reads as under: "13. Certificate of Origin.- Any claim that a product shall be accepted as eligible for preferential tariff treatment shall be supported by Certificate of Origin as per the specimen in the Attachment to the Operational Certification Proc....
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....stoms Authority of the importing party may suspend provision of preferential tariff treatment while awaiting the result of verification. However, it may release the goods to the importer subject to any administrative measures deemed necessary, provided that they are not subject to import prohibition or restriction and there is no suspicion of fraud; and (iv) the retroactive check process, including the actual process and the determination of whether the subject good is originating or not, should be completed and the result communicated to the Issuing Authority within six months. While the process of the retroactive check is being undertaken, sub-paragraph (iii) shall be applied. (b) The Customs Authority of the im....
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....and designation of the officials performing the verification visit; (iii) an importing party shall obtain the written consent of the producer/exporter whose premises are to be visited; (iv) when a written consent from the producer/exporter is not obtained within thirty days from the date of receipt of the notification pursuant to sub-paragraph (i), the notifying party may deny preferential tariff treatment to the goods referred to in the said AIFTA Certificate of Origin that would have been subject to the verification visit; and (v) the Issuing Authority receiving the notification may postpone the proposed verification visit and notify the importing party of such intention within fifteen days from the date of rece....
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....ried out and its results communicated to the Issuing Authority within a maximum period of six months from the date when the verification visit was conducted. While the process of verification is being undertaken, subparagraph a(ii) of paragraph 16 shall be applied." 11. According to the petitioners, the show cause notice was without jurisdiction since the authority issuing the show cause notice lack competence to go behind the Certificate of Origin and the only method of questioning the Certificate of Origin was the one prescribed in the Treaty read with the Rules. 12. At this stage, Mr. Raghvendra P. Shankar, learned Addl. Solicitor General submits that reliance on Article 24 by the petitioners is misplaced as that operates at the in....