TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2005 (10) TMI 202
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....Beer, Wine, Soft Drinks etc. for supply of the same as ship stores under Section 85 of the Customs Act, 1962. 1.2 Pursuant to an intelligence that the Appellants were engaged in diversion of duty free imported goods in the local market, without payment of duty, in contravention of the Customs Act, 1962 and EXIM Policy, the said warehouse was searched on 25/26-3-2004 by the officers, in the presence of the proprietor. The lock of the warehouse was found without the paper seal of customs, and on verification of the stocks, 432 Refrigerant Gas cylinders and 28 Oxygen Cylinders were found in the warehouse. On weighment of the cylinders, claimed to be containing Refrigerant gas, 80 cylinders were found empty. It was observed that some of these ....
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....ishna Nair an employee of his firm M/s. Kandla Ship Stores, had opened the privite warehouse with duplicate keys, after tearing off paper seal pasted on lock by the Officer of Customs Bond Section, Custom House Kandla and transferred imported Gas Cylinders from the said private warehouse. Further, Mr. Rajeev Lakhanpal also admitted that they had sold 22 Cylinders filled with Refrigerant Gases, filled by them in these cylinders from imported Refrigerant Gas filled after cooling the empty cylinders with the help of vacuum pump. 1.4 Further enquiries were made and scrutiny of the warehouse register revealed that, out of 493 gas cylinders in all, as per the stocks, 141 gas cylinders were not found and were alleged to have been taken from the b....
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..... Kandla Ship Store Plot No. 27, Sector 10A, GIDC, Gandhidham. (e) the licence for private bonded warehouse granted to them should not be cancelled under the provisions of Section 58(2) of the Customs Act, 1962." 1.6 The Commissioner adjudicated the matter and ordered as follows : "Therefore, in view of the above discussion and findings, I pass the order as under : ORDER (a) order to confiscate the seized goods as detailed in Annexure "A", "B" and "C" of the panchnama dated 25/26-3-2004 having total market value of Rs. 82,00,000/- under the provisions of Section 111(d) and 111(j) of the Customs Act, 1962, read with Section 118, Section 119 and Section 120 of the Customs Act, 1962. However, I give them an option to redeem the seized goo....
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....2 of the Customs Act, 1962 on Shri Balan Nair of M/s. Kandla Ship Store, Plot No. 27, Sector 10A, GIDC, Gandhidham. SCN dated 17-9-2004 issued from File No. S/43-37/2004-SIIB is disposed off accordingly. " hence this appeal. 2.1 After hearing both sides and considering the material it is found that : (a) Commissioner relying upon the admission of the proprietor and after weighing evidence brought on records, has concluded that the Appellant clandestinely removed imported gas cylinders from the bonded warehouse and was refilling the same into locally procured empty gas cylinders in the proprietor's adjacent premises and the proprietor of the firm was squarely responsible for the said activities a....
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....d the remaining amount confirmed along with interest as applicable from the total demands as confirmed by the ld. Commissioner. (d) we find and approve the findings of the Commissioner's and the admitted fact that the appellant had removed imported goods in violation of the Customs Act, 1962 and in contravention of the provisions of the EXIM policy, goods which are not permitted to be imported into DTA/home consumption and the imports were allowed only as ship stores, otherwise they required an import licence has to be upheld in the facts of this case and also in view of the Commissioner's findings as arrived at para 41.2 of the impugned order which are as follows : "41.2 In view of the above disc....