The Chennai bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) allowed the provisional release of seized crude gold on the ground of non-inclusion of prohibited goods.
Sree Venkateshwara Bullion, the appellant assessee in the business of local trade of gold and silver bullion, jewelry, etc in which N.S. Balaji and his wife N.B. Anita are partners and registered with the Goods and Service Tax (GST) authorities and had been filing their returns with the G.S.T. authorities on local purchase and sale of bullion and jewelry without any default or let on their part.
The assessee appealed against the order passed by the Principal Commissioner of Customs (Air Cargo), Chennai had passed the impugned order thereby again reiterating that the seized gold could not be provisionally released and thereby rejecting their application.
B. Satish Sundar, the counsel for the assessee contended that the seized goods are not ‘prohibited goods’ in terms of Section 2(33) of the Customs Act 1962, thus the provisional release of seized gold is legally sustainable.
Rudra Pratap Singh, the counsel for the department contended that the provisional release may defeat the purpose of absolute confiscation of the goods, permissible as per section 125 of the Customs Act and thereby permit prohibited goods to enter the domestic market, the adjudicating authority rightly rejected the request for provisional release of the seized gold.
The Bench observed that in the case of New Delhi in Additional Director General vs Its My Name Pvt. Ltd, the court held that imported goods, consequent on adjudication may, possibly, be held liable to confiscation at a later stage, cannot be a ground to refuse provisional release and the impugned goods may be ordered to be released provisionally.
The two-member bench comprising P Dinesha (Judicial) and Ajit Kumar (Technical) allowed the release of the seized goods, for which the assessee may furnish a bond, for the full value of the seized goods, along with a Bank Guarantee containing an auto-renewal clause for an amount of 30% of the value of the seized goods.
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