The Chennai bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) held that the sale invoice can be either issued by a company located in a third country or an ASEAN India Free Trade Agreement (AIFTA) exporter.
TCP Limited, the appellant assessee was importing SteamingNon-Coking Coal and filed two Bills of Entry for clearance of the same, and the imported goods were supplied by Coal and Oil Company LLC, Dubai.
The assessee appealed against the order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) for rejection of the concessional rate of duty as per the Preferential Trade Agreement.
Shobana Krishnan, the counsel for the assessee contended that under Rule 13 prescribing operational certification procedures for Customs Tariff (Determination of Origin of Goods) Rules, 2009 of ASEAN Preferential Trade Agreement at paragraph 22 which stated that the sales invoice can be either issued by a company located in a third country or an AIFTA exporter.
R. Rajaraman, the counsel for the department relied on the decisions made by the lower authorities and contended that the reason for rejecting the claim was that there were discrepancies in the invoices as the invoice was issued from a third country viz., Dubai, UAE whereas the Country of Origin Certificate was from Indonesia.
The Bench observed that the Customs Authority in the importing party shall accept an AIFTA Certificate of Origin where the sales invoice was issued either by a company located in a third country or an AIFTA exporter for the account of the company, provided that the product meets the requirements of these rules.
The two-member bench comprising Sulekha Beevi (Judicial) and Vasa Seshagiri Rao (Technical) held that the assessee was eligible for the Customs duty demand while allowing the appeal filed by the assessee.
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