Commissioner of Customs (Gen), Mumbai v. Abdulla Koyloth
Case brief
What is this about?
Supreme Court of India, Civil Appeal No. 1608 of 2005 (D.K. Jain and T.S. Thakur JJ.), decided 29-10-2010. Revenue appeal under Section 130E(b), Customs Act, 1962 against CESTAT, West Regional Bench, Mumbai order dated 10.12.2004 accepting the importer's declared assessable value despite mis-declaration of quantity, country of origin and value. Key propositions: transaction value under Section 14(1) and Rule 4(2) of the 1988 Valuation Rules binds Customs absent contemporaneous evidence of incorrect invoice; sequential resort to Rules 5-8 via Rule 3(ii) only on rejection under Rule 4; relevance of importer's Section 108 admission accepting market-survey prices; perversity of Tribunal finding; remand for fresh determination of valuation, redemption fine (Rs. 30,11,525) and penalty (Rs. 10 lakhs under Section 112(a)); absolute confiscation of R-22 gas filled cylinders under Section 111(d) upheld by Tribunal. Precedents: J.D. Orgochem; South India Television; Bureau Veritas; Eicher Tractors (relied on); Prasant Glass Works (referred); Varsha Plastics; Sanjay Chandiram.