GMR ENERGY LTD. Vs. COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS, BANGALORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE appeals have been filed against the Order -in -Original No. 23/2005 dated 2 -5 -2006 passed by the Commissioner of Customs, Bangalore.

(2.) THE appellants M/s. GMR Energy Ltd., Bangalore, formerly known as M/s. Tanir Bavi Power Company Pvt. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as M/s. GEL for short), imported Hot Gas Path Parts from M/s. GE, USA. The goods were cleared on payment of duty. Later, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) carried out detailed investigations leading to the issue of Show Cause Notice alleging that the appellants (1) had undervalued the goods and (2) had wrongly availed the benefit of Notification No. 21/2002 -Cus. dated 1 -3 -2002 in respect of the goods imported under two Bills of Entry dated 25 -6 -2003 and 12 -4 -2004 respectively. The Adjudicating Authority re -determined the assessable value of the goods imported under Rule 8 of the Customs Valuation Rules. He denied the benefit of exemption Notification 21/2002 -Cus. for the goods imported under two Bills of Entry. He confirmed differential duty amount of Rs. 4,20,31,824/ - on account of undervaluation and an amount of Rs. 3,16,56,697/ - on account of denial of the Notification benefit. The longer period has been invoked. Interest under Section 28AB was demanded. Mandatory penalty equal to the duty demanded was imposed under Section 114A of the Customs Act. The impugned goods were held liable for confiscation under Section 111(m) and under 111(o) of the Customs Act, 1962. A penalty of Rs. 10,00,000/ - was imposed on Shri Siddharth Deb, Associate General Manager of M/s. GEL under Section 112B of the Customs Act, 1962. The appellants strongly challenge the impugned order. Hence, they have come before the Tribunal for relief.

(3.) S /Shri V. Sridharan and G. Shiva Dass, the learned Advocates, appeared for the appellants. Shri P.R.V. Ramanan, the Special Counsel for the Revenue assisted by Shri K. Sambi Reddy, JDR, appeared for the Revenue. In order to appreciate the issues involved in these appeals, we record the following facts : -