The Mumbai Bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) quashed the revocation of customs broker (CB) Licence and observed that livelihood of Customs broker and employees is dependent upon functioning of Customs brokers business.
In connection with such imports, SIIB investigation noted that the appellants CB had filed Bill of Entry, and thus were involved with certain violations of CBLR, 2018 and the same was informed to the jurisdictional Principal Commissioner of Customs (General), by sending an offence report/letter along with Show Cause Notice.
On the basis of such offence report received from the jurisdictional Principal Commissioner of Customs (General), Mumbai-I had concluded that there is a prima facie case against the appellant for having contravened Regulations 10(d), 10(e) and 10(n) of CBLR, 2018. Accordingly, the said Principal Commissioner of Customs, had suspended CB license of the appellants under Regulation 16(1) of CBLR, 2018, with immediate effect.
The counsel for appellant contended that in respect of Regulation 10(d) of the CBLR, they state that the appellants CB have always advised his clients to comply with the provisions of Customs law; they were not aware of the overvaluation of the imported goods. The request for first check assessment was made by the appellants CB and it is only during such examination, the department itself came to know about overvaluation of goods. Hence, the intention of CB is bonafide and there is no false declaration of value; as there is no specific brand name and there is no requirement to declare unbranded nature, and thus he claimed that the appellants are not at fault and it cannot be said that they have violated Regulations 10(e) of the CBLR.
The timelines indicate that the suspension was continued during the inquiry proceedings for about 22 months. Normally, immediate suspension action prior to conduct of regular inquiry is taken considering the serious violations of CBLR, 2018 by the action of the Customs broker. Otherwise, the regulations provide for conducting regular inquiry, while license of Customs broker is in operation, for taking a decision on the suspension or revocation of the license. If the entire process of suspension proceedings is unduly delayed, then the very purpose of prescribing specific time limits in relation to conduct of inquiry proceedings is nullified and to such extent the actions of the authorities is not really sanctioned by law
A Two-Member Bench of the Tribunal comprising S.K. Mohanty, Member (Judicial) and M.M. Parthiban, Member (Technical) observed that “It is also noted that the livelihood of Customs broker and the employees is dependent upon the functioning of Customs brokers business. The punishment suffered by being out of Customs broker business for about two years is enough to mitigate case of violations or contraventions of CBLR, 2018.”
“It is factually incorrect to state that the appellants had for their acts of omission and commission in dealing with importer in overvaluation of imported goods have failed to adhere to the responsibilities expected in terms of Regulations 10(d), (e) and (n) of CBLR, 2018. Thus, we find that the conclusions arrived at by the Principal Commissioner in the impugned order is contrary to the factual position and thus it is not legally sustainable” the Bench concluded.
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