Givuadan (India) Pvt Ltd Vs Commissioner of Customs (CESTAT Bangalore)
CESTAT Bengaluru allowed Givuadan (India) Pvt. Ltd.’s appeal against denial of exemption under Notification No. 21/2002-Cus dated 01.03.2002, Serial No. 119, for 10 kg of Tab. Mapelein imported under CTH 3302 1090. The original authority denied the exemption based on a previous test report showing 15.5% v/v ethyl alcohol and held the goods liable to 100% BCD. The Commissioner (Appeals) upheld the denial.
The appellant submitted that Tab. Mapelein was a tobacco-specific raw material consisting of mixtures of odoriferous substances, manufactured for industrial use and fundamentally different from finished compound alcoholic preparations used in beverages. It relied on a purchase order from Godfrey Phillips India Ltd. and contended that the product was intended for the tobacco industry. The appellant also challenged reliance on a test report that was allegedly not supplied and relied on judicial precedents.
CESTAT examined Serial No. 119, which excludes only “compound alcoholic preparations of a kind used for the manufacture of beverages” having alcoholic strength exceeding 0.5% by volume. The Tribunal noted that the appellant’s earlier case had distinguished beverage flavours from flavours not sold to beverage manufacturers and had directed examination of whether the latter were actually of a kind used for manufacture of beverages.
