The Mumbai bench of the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal ( CESTAT ) has held that confiscation of goods cannot be made when the assessee submits e-BRC certifying repartition of foreign exchange for FOB Value.
The appellants M/s S.G. International, the exporter and Shri Mohd. Sadique Muchhada, Power of Attorney holder of the said exporter challenged the Order in-Appeal passed by the Commissioner of Customs ( Appeals ), JNCH, Nhava Sheva, Mumbai-II.
The Appellants had exported goods of FOB value of Rs. 6,40,08,136.70/- in eleven Shipping Bills ( S/Bs ) and balance 9 C/Bs, all dated 22.10.2018 claiming total drawback for Rs.11,71,805/-, refund of Integrated Goods and Service Tax ( IGST ) of Rs.42,32,438/- and Refund of State Levies ( ROSL ) of Rs.6,91,458/- being taxes/duties suffered on the export products.
The goods covered by the shipping bills were duly assessed and cleared for export by Customs following the due procedure. The drawback, IGST refund and ROSL amounts as indicated above have been paid to the appellants after the “Let Export Order” grant and shipment of the goods for export.
Based on intelligence that the exporter had mis-declared the description of the goods and overvalued the exports to avail of an inadmissible higher amount of drawback, refund of IGST, ROSL, the Commissioner ( General ), JNCH, Nhava Sheva had directed the custodian CFS-JWR, Panvel to put on hold the goods exported by the appellants vide his letter dated 25.10.2018.
In case revenue is not in a position to complete the entire proceedings within one month time, then they should allow the provisional release of the detained export goods immediately within a week from the date of receipt of this order, on the execution of the bond equivalent to the value of the goods and security in form of Bank Guarantee of Rs 20,00,000/- ( Rupees Twenty Lakhs only ).
The appellants submitted details in the eleven e-BRCs in the form of a ‘Statement of Bank Realisation’ issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade ( DGFT ) reproducing the information received by DGFT from the banks in secured electronic mode with respect to declared FOB value of export goods against individual shipping bill in respect of exports carried out.
From the above factual details of the amount of foreign exchange realized in respect of 11 S/Bs, duly authenticated in the DGFT e-BRC portal, the entire amount of export goods in foreign exchange as declared in the respective shipping bills have been realized by exporter-appellants.
The appellants-exporter had produced e-BRC certifying the repatriation of foreign exchange for the full FOB value in respect of all eleven S/Bs through the banking channel as opposed to the case in Om Prakash Bhatia where the exporter had not led any evidence that export value mentioned in the shipping bill was the true sale consideration and the claim for drawback filed by the exporter was withdrawn.
A two-member bench of Mr S K Mohanty, Member ( Judicial ) and Mr M M Parthiban, Member ( Technical ) observed that the impugned order upholding the order of original authority in confirmation of adjudged demands, confiscation of goods and imposition of penalty on appellants, is not legally sustainable and hence the same is set aside.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the JudgmentSupport our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan premium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates
