Subject : Concessional rate of customs duty on Ovaprim – Fish spawning and inducing agent – regarding.
I am directed to refer to S. No. 2 (ix) of Notification No. 29/94-Customs dated the 1st March 1994 and to state that the notification seeks to prescribe concessional rate of customs duty on Ovaprim, a fish spawning and inducing agent. Though, Ovaprim is classifiable under Chapter 38 of the Customs Tariff, this was not mentioned is the preamble to the said notification. At present, Ovaprim attracts concessional rate of customs duty under S. No. 23 of Notification No. 17/95-Customs dated 16.3.95 wherein Chapter 38 has been indicated.
2. It has been brought to the notice of the Board that concessional rate of customs duty for import under Notification No. 28/94-Customs was denied for the period prior t 16.3.95 on the ground that there was no mention to Chapter 38 in the said notification. In this connection it may be mentioned that the Supreme Court of India in the case of Jain Engineering Vs. Collector of Customs [Reference 1987 (32) ELT3 (SC)] had held that the benefit of exemption under a notification cannot be denied to an item which is specifically mentioned just because the correct Chapter heading has not been mentioned or wrongly mentioned. In view of the law so drawn by the Supreme Court, concessional rate of customs duty for Ovaprim under Notification No. 28/95-Cus was available even though it is classifiable under Chapter 38 which was not mentioned in the said notification. All pending cases may, therefore, be disposed of accordingly.
