The New Delhi bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) held that no authority was given to the Customs Broker to determine or re-determine the value of any imported or exported goods used in the Customs purpose as per the Customs Broker Licensing Regulations (CBLR),2013.
Trinity International forwarders, the appellant assessee was issued a license as a Customs Broker. The assessee appealed against the order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) for canceling the Customs Brokers license issued and forfeiting its security deposit and for the imposition of a penalty.
Priyanka Goel, the counsel for the assessee contended that even if the exporter had claimed an ineligible drawback by inflating the value of the export goods, the assessee had no knowledge of it and it had no mechanism or authority to verify if the export value was correct or otherwise by the assessee.
Further submitted that the charge that the appellant did not advise its client- the exporter to comply with the Act and Rules or that it did not report non-compliance was not established.
Rakesh Kumar, the counsel for the department contended that the assessee had violated Regulations of the Customs Broker Licensing Regulations.
Also submitted that the assessee failed to fulfil this obligation and instead, filed the Shipping Bills and facilitated the over-valued exports which enabled the exporter to claim ineligible drawback.
The Bench observed that Customs Broker was neither authorised under the Act nor was obligated under the CBLR to re-determine the value of any goods and the Customs Broker also had no authority to inspect or examine the goods and so the possibility of the Customs Broker suspecting that the goods may have been over valued also does not arise.
The two-member bench comprising Rachna Gupta (Judicial) and Subba Rao (Technical) held that the assessee did not violate any regulations defined under the Customs Broker Licensing Regulations while allowing the appeal filed by the assessee.
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