No confiscation of imported goods where IEC not mentioned on Bill of Entry: CESTAT

Case Details: Bankey Bihari Engineers LLP v. Commissioner of Customs - [2022] 139 taxmann.com 355 (New Delhi-CESTAT)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • Anil Choudhary, Judicial Member
  • D.K. Nair, Consultant & Shubham Tyagi, Adv. for the Appellant.
  • Mahesh Bhardwaj, AR for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

The appellant had filed Bill of Entry for clearances of imported goods. The goods were examined 100% on first check remarks by the Assessing Group. The imported goods were declared to be liable for confiscation as appellant had not mentioned IEC in bill of entry with option to redeem same on payment of fine of Rs.2.5 lakh. The appellant preferred appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals), who upheld the order of confiscation and reduced the redemption fine and penalty from Rs.2.5 lakh to Rs.1.5 lakh. It filed appeal before the CESTAT.

CESTAT Held

The Honorable CESTAT observed that as per normal practice and procedure, the IEC code is made available to the applicant within two working days. However, in the instant case, the grant of IEC code was delayed for the reasons beyond the control of the appellant and such code was finally issued by the office of DGFT after 11 days delay. The appellant had to file the bill of entry on arrival of goods without the IEC code. Admittedly, the appellant paid appropriate duty for release of the imported goods for home consumption and it had applied for IEC number in proper time. Therefore, it was held that the order of confiscation and redemption fine was liable to be set aside and penalty was also reduced from Rs.2.5 lakh to Rs. 1,000.