The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), New Delhi ruled that Duty Free Import Authorization (DFIA) Licence available to import of Melamine.
This appeal is filed by M/s Shalimar Precision Enterprises P. Ltd assailing order-in-appeal passed by the Commissioner (Appeals), whereby he upheld the order passed by the Additional Commissioner and rejected the appellant’s appeal.
By this order, customs duty amounting to Rs. 3,18,245/- and Anti-Dumping Duty amounting to Rs. 3,56,045/- was demanded from the appellant in respect of the Melamine imported by it vide Bill of Entry 9556767 denying the benefit of the Duty-Free Import Authorization licence and a penalty of Rs. 50,000/- was imposed under Section 117 of the Customs Act.
The appellant, M/s Shalimar Precision Enterprises P. Ltd imported a consignment of “Melamine” by the aforesaid Bill of Entry and sought clearance under DFIA Scheme availing the benefit under Notification No. 98/2009-CUS.
The consignment was cleared for home consumption by the Customs Officers. The DFIA licence was purchased by the appellant for consideration as it was transferable. The DFIA licence, inter alia, permitted duty free import of “Syntan”. The term “Syntan” refers to Synthetic Tanning Agent used in leather processing. According to the appellant Melamine is a Syntan.
The proper officer of the Customs has cleared the consignment of Melamine accordingly holding it to be Syntan. Later, the Additional Director of DRI, Lucknow initiated an enquiry and issued a show cause noticealleging that Melamine is not a Syntan. According to the show cause notice, DRI received information that the appellant had mis-represented Melamine as Syntan and wrongly availed thebenefit of exemption notification under the DFIA licence.
A Coram consisting of Justice Dilip Gupta President and P V Subba Rao, Technical Member held that “To sum up, the lower authorities have confirmed the demand ignoring the order of this Tribunal in Dimple Overseas Ltd., ignoring all the technical literature which state that Melamine can be used directly for tanning leather, relying on the opinion of CLRI contrary to the published literature and without even allowing cross-examination of that expert, on the ground that Melamine was not used in the export products.”
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the JudgmentSupport our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan premium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates
