Penalty for Forgery of BSI Certificate will sustain on Corroborated Evidence: CESTAT [Read Order]

In a significant ruling, the Principal Bench of Delhi Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) has held that penalty for forgery of the BSI certificate will sustain if it was committed by the authorised employee of the assessee and corroborated with evidence collected from search.

Mr Sanjay Kumar appeared for the Appellant and Ms Tamanna Alam appeared for the Respondent.

The appellant, M/s. Mohit Industries engaged in import of Cold Rolled Grain Oriented (CRGO) Electrical Steel Sheet/Coils. Department searchedbased on information about forged/fake BIS certificates and collected incriminating documents, Import documents with one laptop.

The Show Cause Notice was served upon the appellant proposing the confiscation of the goods in the impugned imported consignment for the declared value of Rs.1,13,26,839/- and imposed penalty alleging the same to have been illegally imported vide Bill of Entry No. 2136252 dated 20.02.2019 by using fake/forged BIS certificate. 

The import of goods without the BIS license was prohibited as per Section 17 of the BIS Act, 2016 since the goods are CRGO Electrical Steel Sheet/Coils.It is important to prove that the products meet the prescribed quality parameters/technical requirements of the relevant Indian standards and also should bear the standard mark.

It was evident on the record that said M/s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, Japan vide e-mail dated 05.03.2019, by their Assistant Manager, Mr Nishant Singh conveyed that after a thorough examination of the BIS/MTC certificate provided by the DRI Office the same was found fake and was not genuine as was not issued by their company.

Dr Rachna Gupta, a member (judicial) observed that the admission of, Mr Manoj Kumar, appellant’s accountant, about preparing BIS certificates on their own on the editable formats procured stands as corroborating evidence and he admitted that the recovered laptop belongs to him is enough to prove the forgery did on the BIS certificate.

The Tribunal while dismissing the appeal observed that the documents on record did not support the defence taken by the appellant and upheld the order of the Commissioner (Appeals). 

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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