The West Zonal Bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) has held that the rejection of the request for alteration of shipping bills to ‘advance authorization scheme’ in the Foreign Trade Policy is not justified and allowed the appeal of the assessee.
M/s Seco Tools India (P) Ltd,the appellant had requested for re-designating 275 nos. shipping bills, filed between 22nd September 2009 and 30th August 2011, as that of exports towards discharge of obligation against a licence issued to them under the ‘advance authorisation’ scheme in the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP).
In the said application, under section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962, it was intimated that having incorporated the details of the corresponding authorizations in the shipping bills, they had overlooked the categorization of the shipping bills at the top of the page as ‘free shipping bills’ until the export obligation had been discharged and the licencing authority had pointed this out as deficiency impending the redemption thereof.
The request was denied for not adhering to circular no. 36/2010-Customs dated 23rd September 2010 of the Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) which restricted conversions only to certain classes of bills in which the subjective satisfaction intended by section 149 of Customs Act, 1962 could be elicited from documentary evidence available at the time of export and only if sought for within three months from the date of ‘let export order (LEO)’ endorsed in the shipping bills.
A Coram of Justice Dilip Gupta, President and Mr C J Mathew, Member (technical) viewed that the plea was for alteration of the category of the bills to that of the scheme of export under which the appellant claims to have been operating under.
Further observed that the intent of the impugned exports as being in the discharge of obligation under the ‘advance authorisation scheme’ of the Foreign Trade Policy was evident from the shipping bills and it was merely the title of the said bills that was stated to require alteration for enabling the appellant herein to remedy the defect pointed out by the licensing authority under the Foreign Trade Policy.
In light of the case of Haldiram Foods International Pvt Ltd, which upholds the irrelevance of the deadline stipulated in the circular of the Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC), the Tribunal set aside the rejection of the applications for amendment and direct the original authority to decide the matter afresh within the framework of section 149 of Customs Act, 1962.
Shri Ashok Naval, Consultant appeared for the appellant and Shri Ramesh Kumar, Assistant Commissioner appeared for the respondent.
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