The Ahmedabad bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) held that the import of recycled plastic granules or flakes powder is classifiable under the category of plastic stickers which was considered as not hazardous.
Prakash Parekh, the appellant assessee was located in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and engaged in the manufacturing of recycled Plastic granules/ flakes/ agglomerates/ Pallets/Bars/ Powder and the SEZ units were also permitted to do trading of all items except restricted, prohibited, canalised items and plastics waste and scrap and the assessee classified the goods as plastics stickers which was not restricted.
The assessee appealed against the order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) for confirming the Customs Duty demand for the undervaluation of goods and the imposition of penalty.
Vikas Mehta and Rahul Gajera, the counsels for the assessee contended that the testing institute had accepted the description declared as ‘plastic stickers’ in the test result and also described the goods as ‘ cut pieces of clear film with paper stickers per the said result since the goods were found as stickers, the goods should be classified in the form plastic stickers.
Sanjay Kumar, the counsel for the department relied on the decisions made by the lower authorities and contended that the imported goods were rightly classified by the revenue and it was covered under the category of plastic wastes and the demand raised for the undervaluation was as per the law and liable to be sustained.
The Bench observed that the test report clearly states that the goods i.e. Plastic Stickers are not hazardous in nature and also strengthen the case of the assessee that the goods were neither restricted nor prohibited.
The two-member bench comprising Ramesh Nair (Judicial) and C L Mahar(Technical) held that the goods were rightly classified by the assessee as plastic stickers and there was no undervaluation of goods.
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