The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) has upheld an order sanctioning the refund by the first appellate authority (FAA) after rectifying the clerical/ arithmetical mistakes in the shipping bills.
Before the Tribunal, the department argued that the action of the First Appellate Authority clearly erred in giving the benefit of CBEC Circular No. 18/2008-Cus as well as in allowing the refund without reassessment of the shipping bill.
Upholding the order, the Tribunal noted that in the case of Sameera Trading Company, where the case was also duty was assessed contrary to the existing practice by taking FOB value as transaction value while the practice during the period was to take the value FOB value as cum-duty value. In that case, the Commissioner (Appeals) had allowed the benefit of CBEC Circular No. 18/2008 invoking the provisions of Section 154 of Customs Act, 1964 and allowed the refund and the Revenue’s appeal against this order of the First Appellate Authority was dismissed by the Tribunal.
“The case in hand is identical to the case of the Sameera Trading & Co. (supra) and we find no reason to take a different view in this case. We, therefore, find that as was the established practice during the relevant period as confirmed by the CBEC Circular No. 18/2008-Cus the respondent was entitled to the benefit of cum duty value during the relevant period. On the question of reassessment being necessary for claiming the refund we find that in this case there is no requirement of reassessment as there were only clerical and arithmetical errors in the shipping bill namely (a) taking the wet MT iron ore instead of the dry MT and (b) taking the transaction value for calculating export duty instead of taking this as the cum-duty value. Both these defects can be easily corrected under Section 154 Customs Act, 1964,” the Tribunal said.
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