CHOITHRAM HOSPITAL AND RESEARCH CENTRE Vs. CC

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this appeal, filed by M/s. Choithram Hospital & Research Centre, the issue involved is whether the benefit of Notification No. 64/88 -Cus dated 1.3.1988 is available to the goods imported by them.

(2.) SH . A. Upadhyay, learned Advocate, submitted that the appellant is a Registered Charitable Trust and is running a hospital on no profit no loss basis; that they had imported certain medical equipments after availing the benefit of Notification No. 64/88 -Cus dated 1.3.1988 and after obtaining the Customs Duty Exemption Certificate and Customs Clearance permit from the Director General of Health Services; that the Commissioner, under the impugned order, has confirmed the demand of duty besides confiscating the equipments and imposing penalty on the ground that the condition of the Notification regarding providing free treatment to the patients, has not been complied with by them. He, further, submitted that para 2 of the Table annexed to the Notification is not applicable to them as they are covered by para 3 of the Table annexed to the Notification; that, according to para 3, any hospital in respect of which the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare may, having regard to the type of medical, surgical or diagnostic treatment available there, or the geographical situation thereof, or the class of patients for whom the medical, surgical or diagnostic treatment is being provided, certify either generally or in each case, that the hospital, even though it makes a charge for the said treatment, is nevertheless run on non -profit basis and is deserving exemption from the payment of duty on the said hospital equipment, provided the equipment is imported by the hospital by way of free gift from donner abroad or has been purchased out of the donations received abroad in foreign exchange; that they had imported the equipments, in question, from the funds received as gifts from donors abroad in foreign exchange; that in support of their contention they had filed FC -3 return along with FC -9 Certificate duly issued by the Chartered Accountant which shows that they had imported the equipments from the funds received as donations in foreign exchange from abroad; that, accordingly, all the condition to be fulfilled by them for claiming the benefit of Notification No. 64/88 -Cus.

(3.) COUNTERING the arguments, Sh. Kumar Santosh, learned S.D.R., submitted that the benefit of para 3 of the Table to the Notification No. 64/88, is available only to those hospitals in respect of which the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued a certificate on the basis of treatment available there, or the geographical situation or class of patients to be treated; that they had not applied to the Director General of Health Services for Customs Duty Exemption Certificate in terms of para 3 of the Table to the Notification nor any requisite certificate was taken by them from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; that in view of this, the benefit of para 3 of the Table cannot be extended to them. He also mentioned that in all applications made by them for Customs Duty Exemption Certificate, they had declared that the hospital was treating more than 40 per cent of the out door patients free and also reserving 10 per cent of all the hospital beds for the patients in terms of para 2 of the Table to the Notification; that as they have not fulfilled the conditions specified in para 2 of the Table, the benefit has been rightly denied to them. He, finally, mentioned that the benefit of Notification No. 138/88 -Cus, claimed alternatively by the appellants, is also not available as the conditions specified in the said Notification have not been fulfilled by them.