In a recent case, the Kolkata bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) reduced the penalty imposed on Steel Authority of India Limited( SAIL) for non-filing of documents within the prescribed period under customs provisional duty assessment regulations, 2000.
The appellants have imported goods on a provisional assessment basis. In terms of Regulation 3 (3) of Customs, Provisional Duty Assessment Regulations 2011, the appellant/importer is required to file all the necessary documents like invoice, bills of leading, certificate of origin and other documents within one month. However, the appellant has not submitted these documents within one month’s time.
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Proceedings were initiated in respect of 88 such cases wherein the documents were not filed on a timely basis. The adjudicating authority, after considering the factual details, imposed a penalty of Rs.45,000/- under Regulation 5 of the Customs, Provisional Duty Assessment Regulations 2011 on the appellant.
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The Revenue filed an appeal before the Commissioner of Appeals on the ground that the appellant has delayed filing of the relevant documents and not filed within one month period. As a matter of fact, in many cases, the documents were submitted after more than one year. Therefore, they argued that the penalty, by the adjudicating authority is much lower.
It was submitted that in terms of Regulation 5, penalty up to Rs.50,000/- is imposable in such cases of contravention. Commissioner of Appeals, after going through the appeal, has imposed a penalty of Rs.50,000/- for each and every one of the 88 bills of entry, which has resulted in the total penalty being confirmed at Rs.44,00,000/-. Being aggrieved, the appellant is before the Tribunal.
The Advocate appearing on behalf of the appellant submits that the appellant is a Public Sector Undertaking and has to gather documents from various sources in order to file all the documentary evidence before the Customs Authority. This has resulted in a delayed filing of the documents before them. Therefore, he submitted that considering these facts, the adjudicating authority has correctly imposed a penalty of Rs.45,000/-. It was argued that the Commissioner of Appeals has gone to another extreme by imposing penalty of Rs.50,000/- on each and every bill of entry, which has resulted in a huge penalty of Rs.44,00,000/-.
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The Authorized Representative appearing on behalf of the Revenue says that the appellant has been time and again filing their documents in a very delayed manner. The adjudicating authority had taken a very sympathetic view and had just imposed a token penalty of Rs.45,000/-, whereas after going through the factual details, the Commissioner of Appeals has correctly enhanced the penalty of Rs.50,000/- for each bill of entry. Accordingly, he justifies the penalty imposed on the appellant.
The bench found that the appellant has filed the documents after 1 or 2 years’ time, whereas, they were required to file the same within 30 days’ time. Thus they have not paid any heed to the statutory provisions and have contravened the same . Just because the appellants happen to be a Public Sector Undertaking, no special concession can be shown. They are carrying commercial activity and are profit generating unit.
However, the bench felt that the imposing of penalty at the rate of Rs.50,000/- per Bill of Entry is quit harsh. The two member bench of Shri R. Muralidhar, Member (Judicial) And Shri K. Anpazhakan, Member (Technical) held that the appellant is required to pay penalty of Rs.2500/- for every Bill of Entry and reduced the penalty from Rs.44,00,000 to Rs.2,25,000.
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