CONTESSA COMMERCIAL CO (P) LIMITED Vs. COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (PREVENTIVE) CUSTOMS HOUSE, CENTRAL EVENUE BUILDING, THE MALL, AMRITSAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order shall dispose of CUSAP Nos.28 to 34 of 2013 as according to the learned counsel for the appellant, the facts and the issue involved in all these appeals are similar. However, the facts are being extracted from CUSAP No.28 of 2013.

(2.) Cusap No.28 of 2013 has been preferred by the assessee appellant under Section 130 of the Customs Act, 1962 (in short, "the Act") against the order dated 25.6.2013, Annexure P.1 passed by the Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi (in short, "the Tribunal"), show cause notice dated 29.3.2004, Annexure P.2 and the order dated 6.1.2006, Annexure P.3 passed by the adjudicating authority.

(3.) A few facts relevant for the decision of the controversy involved as narrated in CUSAP No.28 of 2013 may be noticed. Acting on a specific information that the firms/companies namely M/s Contessa Commercial Co. (P) Limited, M/s ASK Exports, M/s SRM (P) Limited, 113, Park Street, Kolkata and M/s Varun Enterprises, D.N.Singh Road, Bhagalpur were indulging in fraudulent claims of duty drawbacks, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Amritsar (DRI) initiated investigation into the exports by above mentioned four companies which took place through CFS (OWPL) Ludhiana. During investigation, it was revealed that the above firms had exported the goods declaring them as gear cutting tools of cobalt bearing high speed steel, heat resistant rubber tension tape and gaskets, under drawback incentive scheme and had received/claimed drawback. On chemical testing of the goods declared as gear cutting tools of cobalt, the same was found to be made of low carbon steel as per IS226 i.e. mild steel and were without cobalt. It was found that all the four exporters had made export of inferior quality of goods and aggregate value thereof was depicted. Show cause notices were issued to the above firms relating to drawback already paid proposing recovery thereof and to deny drawback of the amount pending sanction. Preliminary investigation revealed that one Shri Vinod Garg and Shri N.D.Garg were master minded persons to defraud customs authorities making mis-declaration of description of goods in the shipping bills acting on behalf of four exporting firms procuring inferior goods from non existent firms to enable the exporters to claim higher draw back. Replies to the notices were filed. The appellant relied on the test reports. The investigating authority found that the following persons namely, S/Shri Vinod Kumar Garg, N.D.Garg, Sanjeev Kumar, Shambu Kumar, Vineet Kumar Saggar and Manjit Singh intimately connected with each other alongwith Shri Raj Kumar Kishorepuria, Anil Kumar Kishorepuria and Sunil Kumar Kishorepuria had defrauded Customs making fraudulent claim of drawback through misdeclaration of description of goods.Vide order dated 6.1.2006, Annexure P.3, the Commissioner ordered confiscating the exported goods and demanding the refund of the drawback alongwith interest, disallowing the pending drawback on GCT and HRTT and imposing penalties. The said order was challenged through appeals before the Tribunal. The custom authorities also filed three appeals. When the appeals came up for hearing on 17.8.2006, the interim relief was granted to the appellants in respect of the waiving of the pre deposits and staying the recovery till the disposal of the appeals. Vide order dated 14.1.2013, the appeals were finally heard and the impugned order dated 25.6.2013, Annexure P.1 was passed dismissing the appeals filed by the appellants. In respect of appeals of revenue on the issue of export of gaskets, the matter was remanded to the adjudicating authority for readjudication. Hence the instant appeals by the appellants.