The Mumbai bench of the Customs, Excise, and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) granted relief to Huawei Telecommunications by quashing the customs duty demand on the import of interface cards on the grounds of proper classification.
Huawei Telecommunication (India) Company Private Limited, the appellant assessee classifies the imported goods of interface cards as Populated Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PPCBA) under customs tariff.
The assessee appealed against the order passed by the Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) for demanding differential duty under Section 28 of the Customs Act, 1962, and proposing for confiscation of imported goods and imposition of penalties under Sections 112(a), 117 of the Customs Act.
Kartik Sundaram, the counsel for the assessee contended that the imported goods could not be classified as a machine or apparatus and had to be classified as parts of a Packet Optical Transport Switch (POTS) and appropriately classifiable under the optical technology network.
Also submitted that the classification done by the assessee was as per the law and the classification by the department was not proper and liable to be deleted.
D.S Maan, the counsel for the department relied on the decisions made by the lower authorities and contended that the classification of imported goods was rightly classified under the category of machine or apparatus and the differential duty raised was as per the law and liable to be sustained.
The Bench observed that the imported goods namely ‘interface cards’, which are concluded in the impugned order as a product of Optical Transport Network (OTN), and was being used in cloud engine switches providing the function of data packet processing and traffic management, would not be categorized as an ‘apparatus or machine’.
The two-member bench comprising Mohanty (Judicial) and Parthiban (Technical) quashed the Customs duty demand while allowing the appeal filed by the assessee.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the JudgmentSupport our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan premium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates
