1asco Chemie Pvt. Ltd. Vs Commissioner of Customs (Export) (CESTAT Delhi)
CESTAT Delhi held that Epoxy Resin imported was an impregnation resin and goods were duly cleared by customs under DFIA licence as ‘impregnation resin’. Accordingly, demand of duty denying benefit of DFIA licence cannot be sustained.
Facts- The importer had filed five Bills of Entry in 2014 in which it paid duty using Duty Free Import Authorization licenses. DRI came to the conclusion that the DFIA licenses permitted import of impregnating resin and that the importer had mis-declared epoxy resin as impregnating resin to fraudulently claim exemption under the DFIA licenses. It was, therefore, proposed in the SCN to demand differential duty u/s. 28 (1) of the Customs Act, 1962. Penalties were proposed on the importer u/s. 114A and 114AA of the Act and penalty was proposed u/s. 112 on Shri Jain. It was also proposed to hold the imported goods valued at Rs. 1,28,77,505/- liable to confiscation u/s. 111 (o) and 111 (m) of the Act. The Joint Commissioner confirmed the proposals in the show cause notice and this order was upheld by the impugned order.
Conclusion- Heavy reliance placed by both the Joint Commissioner and the Commissioner (Appeals) on Wikipedia is highly misplaced. Wikipedia is an open source information available online and anyone can write about the topic and anyone else can edit it. Thereafter, somebody else can further edit it. It is not the opinion of any one expert but is only crowd sourced information. What is on Wikipedia today about say, epoxy resins today may not be what will be on it tomorrow because someone else may edit and alter the information. Such information cannot form the basis of any adjudication or fastening liability on any assessee.
