Case Law Details
Anurag Trading Co. Vs C.C.E. (CESTAT Delhi)
Section 28B of the Customs Act mandates that any amount collected as representing duty of customs on any goods which are wholly exempted or chargeable to nil rate of duty by any person, shall forthwith be paid to the credit of the Central Government. The adjudicating authority has held that the demanded amounts have been recovered by M/s. Anurag Trading Co. from OEF Kanpur in the form of customs duty, even though the goods involved therein were imported without payment of customs duty on the basis of fraudulent CDECs. The challenge to this demand by the appellant is mainly on the ground that the demands raised under section 28B in respect of 39 BOE filed during the period August 1996 to January 2004 were issued vide the relevant show cause notice on 05.03.2013. It has been argued that even though no time limit has been prescribed in the section 28B of the Customs Act it is settled position of law that the time limit applicable for demand of customs duty under section 28 ibid is also applicable to the recovery of amount under section 28B.
We have gone through the case laws cited above. Even though the decisions have been rendered in the context of section 11D of the Central Excise Act, we note that section 11D is pari materia with section 28B of the Customs Act. By considering time limit of five years specified under section 28, we find that the entire demand raised under section 28B in show cause notice dated 05.03.2013 becomes hit by time bar. Consequently, entire demand confirmed by the adjudicating authority with reference to show cause notice dated 06.03.2013 are hit by time bar and hence is to be set aside. Consequently, there will also be no justification for imposition of any penalties.
In view of the above discussion, we pass the following order:
The demand for customs duty under section 28B along with penal consequences are set aside with reference to the show cause notice dated 06.03.20 13.
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