The Madras High Court held that the Maximum period for demurrage and detention charges waivers is 60 days.
The petitioner, M/s.G.K.International is a proprietary concern that has been given the import-export license by the Office of the Additional Director General of Foreign Trade, Government of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. To conduct the local business, the petitioner was given GST Registration also under the GST Act. Since the petitioner entity deals with the food items, a license in terms of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 has also been issued by the appropriate authority under the said Act.
The petitioner during business had placed an order to import wet dates to the extent of 25585 Kgs to one M/s. Silver Town Food Stuff Trading LLC at Dubai, UAE and accordingly, that foodstuff having been packed in 850 packages covered under invoice and were despatched under Bill of Lading, dated 26.10.2021. The invoice value of the goods was Rs.9,74,099.20/-. The petitioner self-assessed the duty at Rs.3,56,910/-.
These goods reaching the Chennai Port, the customs authorities, on the basis of intelligence information, had conducted detailed examinations of the cargo on 25.11.2021. On such examination, it was found that, the container in which the goods arrived were containing the goods, i.e., walnuts weighing 15,074 kgs besides the declared consignment of wet dates. Subsequently, the goods were seized on the allegation that, there has been misdeclaration of the description of goods and also quantity.
The grievance of the petitioner is that despite the permission was given under Section 49 of the Act and the advice was given to the respondents under 2009 Regulations as well as 2018 Regulations respectively not to demand demurrage or detention charges when the petitioner claimed to have moved with the respondents for release of the goods without paying such demurrage or detention charges, they have not released the goods and they have detained the same demanding such demurrage and detention charges. Therefore, only in that context, these two writ petitions have been filed in respect of each of the Bill of Entry.
The Court observed that “In this regard, it is to be noted that, since the maximum period of demurrage and detention charges waivers could be possible for 60 days, beyond which, there is no scope for such demurrage and detention charges waiver in view of the proviso to Regulations 10(l) of 2018 Regulations, since the said two months period had already been given from 18.11.2021 to 13.01.2022, in my considered view beyond 13.01.2022, the petitioner cannot seek for any such waiver for detention and demurrage charges.”
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