The Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi mere purity being equivalent to purity of foreign gold is wrongly held to be criteria to hold melted gold as gold of foreign origin.
Facts
Present is an appeal against the Order-in-Appeal Vide in which the absolute confiscation of seized gold weighing 999.940 grams of gold has been confirmed along with the imposition of penalty upon the appellant.
Submissions
Arun Goyal, Advocate for the appellant, mentioned that DRI had information about smuggling of gold in an Innova car which consequently was intercepted, resulting in recovery of 5514.8 grams of allegedly smuggled gold along with the recovery of some slips about testing of gold issued by M/s. New Satyam Tounch Centre.
It is submitted that the gold which was lying in M/s. New Satyam Tounch Centre was not detained, the department wrongly detained the appellant’s gold who was present just as a customer of M/s. New Satyam Tounch Centre.
Tamanna Alam, Authorized Representative for the department submitted that the adjudicating authorities below had been meticulous while appreciating the entire evidence on record, prior holding that the defence taken by the appellant does not appeal to a reasonable prudence.
Decision
The bench of DR. RACHNA GUPTA, MEMBER (JUDICIAL) observed that the most of the findings of the authority are the outcome of the presumption. While rejecting the plea of gold being melted out of family jewellery, the authority has simply held the said submission to be the concocted one, without any cogent proof or reasoning except on the presumption that it cannot be a coincidence that three of the brothers will decide at the same time to get the jewellery in their possession to be melted that too to into one common piece.
The Tribunal said that it cannot be denied that whenever jewellery gets melted the impurities get separated from the gold resulting into a best purity piece of gold. Once the melted gold is intended for purchase of latest jewellery as has repeatedly been the submission of the appellant, the melted gold free from impurities is generally collected.
It was observed that appellant had explained the ambiguity by saying that it was COVID time and he was wearing a mask while disclosing his name, it is because of the mask that the name disclosed as Suresh was heard as Mukesh. The authority has ignored the said explanation on the basis of assumption and surmises only. There is no evidence on record nor any investigation to enquire as to whether there is anyone called Mukesh or as to who actually is the person from whom the appellant acquired possession of the foreign smuggled gold.
It was held that the gold in question is not proved to be the smuggled gold of foreign origin.
Case title: Suresh Chand Garg v/s Principal Commissioner of Central Goods and Service Tax
Citation: Customs Appeal No. 53680 of 2023
