Gateway Terminals India P. Ltd. Vs Commr. of Cus. (Nhava Sheva-II) (CESTAT Mumbai)
The appeal before the Mumbai Bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) arose from an order-in-original dated 09.04.2015 passed by the Commissioner of Customs, Nhava Sheva-II. By the impugned order, the Commissioner had cancelled the appellant’s Export Oriented Unit (EOU) registration and Customs Bonded Warehousing Licence ab initio, confirmed customs duty demands aggregating to more than ₹78.86 crore along with applicable interest under Sections 28AB/28AA of the Customs Act, permitted adjustment of a substantial portion of the duty against EPCG licences, and rejected the request to debit the remaining liability through SFIS licences.
The appellant had obtained a private bonded warehouse licence under Section 58 of the Customs Act on 26.05.2006 and permission for in-bond port handling services under Section 65. It was also registered as an EOU on 09.06.2006. Subsequently, it was noticed that the imports made by the appellant did not qualify for exemption under Notification No. 52/2003-Cus. because Paragraph 11 of the notification excluded service sector EOUs that did not directly export services out of India. Based on this understanding, three show cause notices dated 02.11.2006, 22.01.2007 and 29.01.2007 were issued proposing cancellation of EOU registration, cancellation of bonding permissions, and recovery of customs duty and interest in respect of 33 consignments.
