The Customs, Excise And Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, Chennai held that the importer is not liable for Anti-Dumping duty on Goods imported from China.
Facts
The respondent imported goods from China and filed a bill of entry for warehousing the goods. The goods were warehoused and thereafter the respondent filed exbond bill of entry for clearance of the warehoused goods for home consumption. At the time of import of the goods there was no levy of Anti Dumping Duty (ADD) on the goods Diethyl Thio Phosphoryl Chloride (DETPC) imported from China. Later Notification was issued whereby ADD was imposed on the goods imported from China. The department was of the view that, respondent is liable to pay the ADD on the goods imported. Demand notice was issued for payment of ADD along with interest.
Submissions
AR Rajaraman submitted that the Commissioner (Appeals) has erroneously relied on the decision of the Apex Court in the case of Sneh Enterprises Vs Commissioner 2006.
Counsel P.V.B. Chary appeared and argued for the Respondent and submitted that subsection (8) was amended so as to include the provisions of section 15 of Customs Act, 1962 (Date of determination of rate of duty) only with effect from 19.08.2009 and therefore the import being prior to this date, the appellant is not liable to pay ADD on the imported goods.
Decision
The two member bench of Vasa Seshagiri Rao Member (Technical) And Sulekha Beevi C.S. Member (Judicial) said that the issue that arises for consideration is whether the appellant is liable to pay ADD on the goods imported. The sub section (8) to 9 A of Customs Tariff Act, 1975 adopts the provisions of Customs Act for implementation of Anti-Dumping Duty Notifications.
The bench stated that prior to 19.08.2009, subsection (8) did not specify that the provisions contained in Section 15 of Customs Act would be applicable to determine the date on which the rate of duty / ADD is payable. The Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of Sneh Enterprises was dealing with the situation prior to amendment to subsection (8) of 9 A and held that ADD would be payable at the time of import of the goods.
It was observed by the tribunal that the date of bill of entry in the present case is prior to 19.08.2009. Therefore, the decision of the Apex Court in the case of Sneh Enterprises (supra) would be squarely applicable.
The bench held that the appellant is not liable to pay the Anti-Dumping Duty as the Notification No.73/2009 dated 22.06.2009 was not in existence at the time of import of goods.
Case title: The Commissioner of Customs, Chennai v/s M/s. Hyderabad Chemicals Ltd.
Citation: Customs Appeal No. 42118 Of 2013