Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), Mumbai allowed benefit to Small Factor Pluggable (SFP) under Notification 24/2005Cus to Reliance Jio Infocomm.
The respondents, Reliance Jio Infocomm filed a miscellaneous application stating the issue of classification of Small Factor Pluggable (SFP) and alternative claim of exemption under Notification No. 24/2005-Cus dated 1.3.2005.
The Counsels for the respondent, J. C. Patel with Shilpa Balani submitted that SFP are parts of various telecommunication equipment viz. Alcatel-Lucent 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS), Ethernet Switch and eNodeB; SFPs are fitted in the said equipment and function as integral part of such equipment; SFP cannot perform any function on its stand-alone basis as a machine or apparatus by itself.
The Counsel further submitted that SFPs are exempt from duty under Sr. No. 13 of Notification No. 24/2005-Cus dated 1.3.2005; irrespective of the subheading the items are exempted under the Notification cited above, which exempts all goods of heading 8517 except those mentioned in clause (i) to (iv) of the notification, the impugned SFP do not fall under the said clauses.
The Counsel for the Appellant, Ramesh Kumar submitted that part ‘E’ of HSN for Heading 3517 describes ‘Automatic switchboards and exchanges’; Switch Board incorporates various devices classifiable under 8517 62 such as analogue to digital converters, digital to analogue converters, data compression/ decompression devices, modems, multiplexers are parts of Switch Board and have specific function to perform in such switch board, even though they are classified under sub-heading 8517 6230 and 8517 6270 and hence SFPs are having rightly classifiable under 851762.
The Bench consisting of S K Mohanty, Judicial Membar and P Anjani Kumar, Technical Member held that “Therefore, I hold that the impugned goods i.e. SFPs are classifiable as being parts of telecom equipment i.e. Ethernet switch falling under CTH 8517 7090 and thereby are entitled to the benefit of Notification 24/2005- Cus dated 01.03.2005 as claimed by the appellant.”
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