Sennar Paper and Boards Ltd. Vs Commissioner of Customs (CESTAT Chennai)
CESTAT Chennai held that no customs duty could be demanded on the material intended for use in the factory, however, were destroyed by fire accident. Accordingly, duty demand not sustained.
Facts- The appellants filed two Bills of Entry for the import of 167.114MTs and 166.363 MTs of waste paper (double sorted corrugated) falling under CETH 47079000 under concessional rate of duty by availing end-used based exemption Notification No. 21/2002-Cus dated 01/03/2002. As per the above conditions, the imported waste paper should be used in the manufacture of final product ‘kraft paper’ falling under CETH 48042900 of CETA 1985.
However, it was noted that there was stated to be a fire accident in the factory premises on 10.6.2011 in which a quantity of 333.482 MTs of imported waste papers was destroyed fully for which the appellant had filed necessary claim with the concerned insurance company. Further, the appellant had suppressed the fact of the fire accident which had occurred in their factory premises on 10.6.2011 with an intention to evade payment of customs duty. Hence Show Cause Notice was issued to the appellant proposing to recover differential duty and for imposing penalty. After due process of law, the Adjudicating Authority vide Order in Original dated 28.2.2014 demanded the differential duty amount of Rs.3,69,347/-.
