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TMI Blog1995 (12) TMI 133X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... om Japan in 1985-86 under proviso to Section 28 of Customs Act, 1962. He also imposed penalty of Rs. 20 lakhs on appellant Orson Electronics Pvt. Ltd. and of Rs. 5 lakhs on appellant Manohar Rajaram Chhabaria. The Department had recovered certain incriminating documents from the premises of Orson Electronics Pvt. Ltd. indicating under invoicing, besides statements given by appellant M.R. Chhabria and some officers of Orson Electronics. Investigations were also caused to be done by Japanese police who recovered export declarations relating to the consignments along with connected invoices. The department s case is that the imported goods have been undervalued based on 10 invoices issued by M/s. Supra (Japan) Ltd. which were submitted ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... re also not disclosed. It is also a fact that there was inconsistency in Japanese invoices prices. In some instances the Indian invoice prices were found to be higher. The learned Counsel pleaded that there is also no ground in the circumstances of the case for invoking the longer period under Section 28 Customs Act, 1962 to demand duty. The flat addition of 11.15% towards freight insurance by Collector, the learned Counsel argued, is arbitrary as he has taken the average of the highest figures towards freight and insurance contained in the Japanese invoices. The figure according to the appellants would work out to only about 1.34%. 3. Senior Counsel Shri A.N. Haksar for appellant M.R. Chhabria contended that the penalty on the appellant ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , has adopted the export declaration of value by the supplier before Japanese Customs along with the related ten invoices submitted along with the export declaration in arriving at the assessable value of the imported goods under Section 14 of Customs Act, 1962. It has been argued that no reliance can be placed thereon as it has not been disclosed as to what are the Japanese legal requirements regarding the declaration and even out of 10 invoices, 2 Japanese invoices showed prices lower than those found in the invoices submitted to the Indian Customs. As against this, it is found that the export declaration and connected invoices have been obtained by the Indian Directorate of Revenue Intelligence through appropriate governmental channels. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n the two sets of invoices items carrying higher rate of duty, or which were in the restricted category for purposes of import licencing, were given lower value compared to the value of those items which carried lower rate of duty and which could be easily imported against OGL, and that their value was inflated to accommodate value of items carrying higher rate of duty. The Collector had found that while the overall difference in the invoice price declared for different items to the Indian Customs was only ranging from 3% to 16%, the itemwise difference in valuation was quite substantial. There is also no infirmity in the Collector adopting the price in the 10 Japanese invoices in arriving at the assessable value of 14,000 kits for which n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted 12-1-1990 that probably because of his position as Chairman and majority shareholder in Supra Shri Chhabria retained with him decision making, controlling and negotiating power regarding import of components from Japan. In his further statement of 20-2-1990 Shri Bhatia had said that the meetings to discuss business were usually chaired by appellant Chhabria. Further, Shri Kanti C. Khanna, group Finance Director, in his statement dated 19-1-1990 said that generally no decisions were taken without the approval of Chairman (Shri Chhabria). Though the trend of the statements of the persons referred above is to deny any personal role in price manipulation, yet provides nevertheless a reasonable ground to probabilise the pivotal role of appel ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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