Case Law Details
Jayasakthi Papers Vs Commissioner of Customs (Madras High Court)
The only question that arises for my consideration is whether the goods imported by the petitioner can be termed as a stock lot. This expression in normal parlance refers to those goods whose transaction value is less than the market value on account of their purchase during clearance sale or distress sale. But in the case on hand, the expression bears a different connotation altogether. The Director General of Foreign Trade has ascribed a particular meaning to this term in their trade notice No.8/2020-2021. Like Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass’, when DGFT uses a word, it means just what it chooses it to mean-neither more nor less.
The imported paper consignment will qualify to be a stock lot, if it is without description for each category of the paper or if papers of different descriptions have been bundled together.
Trade Notice No.8/2020-2021 dated 04.05.2020 only insists that the importer should mention the correct description of paper being imported at 8 digit under ITC (HS) 4810. The importer must clearly specify the quantities of paper under each 8 digit ITC (HS) Code separately.
Only if the goods falling under different descriptions have been bundled together, then and then alone, they can be classified as stock lot. A mere look at the table issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade would show that the concept of GSM does not figure anywhere in 4810 13. The eight digit code in this case is 4810 13 90 and it does not envisage any GSM variations. 4810 13 deals with goods in rolls, while 4810 14 deals with goods in sheets. If 4810 13 and 4810 14 are compared, it can be seen that while dimensions are mentioned for sheets, no dimensions are mentioned for rolls. Therefore, the question of applying the yardstick of GSM variation in the case of 4810 13 will not arise at all.
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