The Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal ( CESTAT ) Ahmedabad Bench directed for the reassessment of the valuation which was enhanced solely on the basis of the Directorate General of Valuation (DGOV) Circular. But the court cannot allow it unless strong material is found in support of it.
Guru Rajendra Metalloys India Pvt Ltd, the appellant filed the appeals against various bills of entry assessed by enhancing the value as per Directorate General of Valuation (DGOV) Circular and on the consent of the appellant for enhancement of the value. One additional issue involved is classification of Aluminium of Scrap, confiscation, redemption fine and imposition of penalty.
The Assessing Authority has enhanced the value only on the ground that the appellant has given their consent therefore, the same cannot be disputed.
The Commissioner (Appeals) also agreed with this contention that since the appellant have given their consent the price arrived at on the basis of DGOV Circular is correct and legal and the assessment made thereon cannot be disputed by filing appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals).
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Shri Deepak Kumar, Consultant appearing for appellant submitted that the same decision has been decided by the tribunal where it was held that even though there is consent given by assessee the assessment order can be challenged. Therefore, the appeal is maintainable and should be decided on merit. The enhancement of value based on DGOV Circular has been rejected in various judgements.
Also the claim of the Revenue that goods are not Aluminum scrap but Aluminium foil is incorrect as he submitted some photographs and claimed that these scraps are used only as scrap and not as aluminum foil. Further submitted that the entire goods were confiscated on the ground that the so called Aluminum foils were concealed with the Aluminium scrap therefore, the other goods which are not under dispute as regard classification were wrongly confiscated.
Shri Prashant Tripathi, Learned Superintendent (AR) appearing on behalf of the Revenue reiterates the findings of the impugned order.
The Court has carefully considered the submissions made by both sides. The court finds that these matters whether the value enhanced is correct or otherwise has not been gone into as the entire issue revolved around the consent given by the appellant, on that basis the value was enhanced on the basis of DGOV circular. So the court observes that the price cannot be enhanced merely on the basis of DGOV circular unless some strong material is found to support the price which was fetched from DGOV circular.
The court finds that even though the appellant has given the consent but since there was no proper basis for valuation, the appellant has the right to challenge such assessment order. Therefore, merely on the basis of consent the entire case cannot be decided.
As there is no proper basis for the enhancement of the value, this issue needs to be reconsidered by the Assessing Authority on the basis of available materials, the court observed.
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The CESTAT Bench comprising Ramesh Nair ( Judicial Member ) and Raju ( Technical Member ) observed that the classification dispute facts had not been properly considered by the Adjudicating Authority. In regard to the submissions of the appellant that the entire consignment cannot be put into confiscation on the ground that some part of the material was mis-disputed as scrap instead of Aluminium foils.
Firstly, the dispute of classification is debatable which needs to be re-appreciated. Secondly, since the entire goods is Aluminum scrap except a small part of disputed goods, the entire cannot be confiscated on the pretext that the same were used for concealing the small part of disputed goods. So the prima facie confiscation does not appear to be correct. So the entire matter needs to be reconsidered.
So the impugned orders are set aside and appeals are allowed by way of remand to the Assessing Authority.
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