(1.) IN this appeal filed by M/s. Consolidated Manufacturing and Marketing Company, the order -in -appeal dated 13.8.1996 passed by the Commissioner of Customs (Appeals), New Delhi is under challenge. The appellants had imported 5,000 sets of Filter elements and 3,000 Nos. of Heater plugs. The declared value was not accepted by the Customs and based on the contemporaneous imports, the assessable value was determined. On appeal, the Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) observed that the details of the goods as were found on physical examination of the goods did not tally with the invoice. She observed that there was a glaring lacuna in the invoice produced and relied upon by the importers and came to a decision that the view taken by the adjudicating authority was correct.
(2.) SHRI R. Parthasarthy, Advocate appearing for the appellants submitted that the importers in this case were an established importers and had been purchasing similar goods from the same traders in U.K. He referred to the order placed by the importers with the foreign suppliers and the proforma invoice received subsequently. He submitted that there were no grounds for rejecting the declared assessable value and that as per the provisions of the law the price adopted by the Customs was not correct. It was his further contention that there was no allegation of any extra remittance and that the declared price should have been accepted by the Customs. He also submitted that there was no ground for imposing any penalty.
(3.) SHRI S.P. Rao, JDR referred to the invoice and submitted that it did not contain any details of the goods. On physical examination, the goods were found of Lucas made in UK. There was no mention of this fact in the invoice. The Customs have taken a view that the value declared by the importers was not the correct transaction value under Rule 4 of the Customs Valuation Rules, 1988. The Customs had made inquiries and after rejecting the declared assessable value, had determined the value of the filter elements under Rule 5 of the Valuation Rules 1988 and that of Heater Plug under Rule 7 of the said Rules.