Case Law Details
Commissioner of Customs (Imports) Vs Ganpati Overseas (Supreme Court of India)
Supreme Court held that enhancing the price of imported goods by invoking rule 8 of the Customs Valuation Rules without any evidence is unjustified and bad-in-law.
Facts- Show cause notice was issued to M/s. Ganpati Overseas demanding differential customs duty of Rs. 1,07,41,419/- alleging willful mis-declaration/ under valuation and suppression of correct value of imported goods.
Holding that the export declarations reflected the true transaction value which was misdeclared by the importer to evade customs duty, the adjudicating authority vide the order-in-original dated 17.06.2002 held that the proviso to Section 28(1) of the Customs Act was applicable. Consequently, M/s Ganpati Overseas was held liable to pay the differential customs duty of Rs. 1,16,09,181 .00 alongwith interest forthwith. For misdeclaration and under valuation, the goods in question were held liable for confiscation under Sections 111(d) and 111(m) of the Customs Act. However, as the said goods were not available having been cleared no order for confiscation was passed. Further, equivalent amount of differential customs duty was imposed on M/s Ganpati Overseas as a penalty under Section 114A of the Customs Act and in addition, penalty of rupees five lakhs was imposed on Mr. Yashpal Sharma under Section 112(a) of the Customs Act.
CESTAT allowed the appeal filed by the appellant. Further, Tribunal also concluded that price declared in the import invoice was correct.
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