The Kolkata bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) quashed the demand of Customs Duty imposed for the import of car electronic goods on the ground of the absence of real importers.
John Miranda and Rakesh Magoo, the appellant assessee were importing car electronic goods such as car audio items, amplifiers, car speakers, and CD players through the Kolkata port.
The assessee appealed against the order passed by the Commissioner for demanding the Customs Duty of the differential duty along with the penalty.
Samir Chakraborty and Abhijit Biswas, the counsels for the assessee contended that there was no provision in the Act for providing for any deemed importer of goods for demanding or recovering of duty of Customs allegedly evaded from any other person except the importer on record. Therefore, the duty cannot be demanded from the assessee.
Tariq Suleiman, the counsel for the department contended that the demand of the Customs Duty was rightly demanded by the department and the assessees are seems to be the real importers and are liable to pay the demand of duty raised by the department.
The Bench observed that the duty cannot be demanded from the assessees as it is the fact on record that the assessees are not the real importers and the Bills of Entry had been filed in the name of Surya Trading Company and Creative Enterprises and these Bills of Entry were assessed and the goods were cleared to those importers.
The two-member bench comprising Ashok Jindal (Judicial) and. K.Anpazhakan (Technical) quashed the demand of Customs Duty while allowing the appeal filed by the assessee.
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