The Kolkata bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) granted relief to Tata Steel by quashing the customs duty demand of approximately 32 crores on the import of iron and steel under the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) Scheme on the ground of non-examination of documentary evidence.
Tata Steel Ltd, the appellant assessee engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel having its largest production facility in Jamshedpur, wherein the assessee had commissioned seven blast furnaces referred to as “A” to “G” having aggregate capacity of 5 million Million Tonnes Per Year (MPTA) and sought to enhance the capacity of its blast furnace upto 10 million MPTA and thus conceived the plan to install “H” blast furnace and “I” blast furnace of 2.5 million capacity each.
The assessee appealed against the order passed by the adjudicating authority for confirming the Customs duty demand of Rs. 32,76,67,821/- on the revised assessable value of the goods imported during the period 22.11.2006 to 22.11.2007, determined under Section 28(8) of the Customs Act, 1962.
Gajendra Jain, Narendra Dave, Rahul Tangri, Udita Saraf, P. R. Renganath, and M. Kannan, the counsels for the assessee contended that the the revenue had built the present case purely on presumptions and assumptions basis, without actually verifying the documentary evidence placed before them.
Mihir Ranjan, the counsel for the department relied on the decisions made by the lower authorities and contended that the assessee had malafide intention to evade the payment of Customs duty and the demand raised by the department was as per the law and liable to be sustained.
The Bench observed that the adjudicating authority had failed to appreciate this documentary evidence and had confirmed the demand by simply relying on the assumptions made during the issue of the show cause notice.
The two-member bench comprising Muralidhar (Judicial) and Rajeev Tandon (Technical) quashed the Customs duty demand while allowing the appeal filed by the assessee.
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