The Chennai Bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), allowed assessment and (Countervailing) CV duty paid on notebook computers u/s 4A of the Excise Act, 1944, thereby granting relief to M/s. Acer India Pvt Ltd, the respondent.
M/s. Acer India Ltd. filed bill of entry for import of notebook computers and the respondent had assessed the bill of entry on the basis of Retail Sale Price (RSP) for payment of duties. Later they realized that as the goods are for supply to educational institution and not intended for retail sale, the assessment ought to have been done under normal transaction value, instead of RSP based assessment.
The respondent then requested for re-assessment of bill of entry on the basis of transaction value and furnished copies of documents in the nature of order placed by the educational institution, invoices, advance amount received from the educational institution etc. They also paid back the Special Additional Duty (SAD) benefit availed by way of RSP based assessment at the time of import.
The original authority rejected the request for reassessment and held that the assessment and CV duty paid in terms of section 4A of Excise Act 1944 is legal and proper. Against this, the appellant filed appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) who set aside the order passed by the original authority and held that the goods are to be assessed under transaction value and that appellant would thereafter be eligible for refund.
Rudra Pratap Singh appeared and argued for the department and it was submitted that the MRP/RSP was affixed on each package. Thus, the goods are sold in a pre-packaged form. The goods which are notified under Section 4 A of Excise Act and imported in pre-packaged condition bearing MRP, should be assessed only as per Section 4 A of Excise Act on the basis of MRP.
Rohan Muralidharan appeared and argued for the respondent and it was submitted that on the basis of the documentary evidence, it is that in the present case, the goods are in pre-packaged form with a declaration of MRP on the retail packages. However, the goods are sold to RGUKT which is an educational institution. The supply being to an institutional consumer and not intended for retail sale, the assessment has to be under section 4 of the Excise Act, 1944, based on transaction value.
A Coram comprising Vasa Seshagiri Rao, Technical Member and Sulekha Beevi C.S, Judicial Member observed that “The department has not doubted that the import is for sale to the RGKUT. This being so, the sale is not to an ultimate consumer and is only to institutional consumer. The view taken by the Commissioner (Appeals) that the assessment has to be made under normal transaction value under Section 4 is indeed legal and proper.”
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