9911796707
TMI Blog2001 (6) TMI 490X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ped through World Courier on 23rd or 24th to arrive at its office on 27th or 28th December. This was followed by a fax on 23rd December, intimating the address of the Mumbai agent of World Courier. These goods were despatched to the appellant by Eli Lilly International Corporation of New York of USA by a courier and arrived at Delhi on the night of 27th December, 1992. The documents presented for the clearance of the consignment at Delhi by a courier who brought them included a airway bill dated 24-12-1994 of World Courier, New York, declared the goods to be medicines of the value of US $ 520.50 and an invoice dated 24-12-1992 of Eli Lilly International Corporation, being samples of no commercial value of zinc insulin crystals and sterile beef insulin. On the basis of this document the goods were cleared and granted exemption under Notification 159/92. The goods were delivered shortly thereafter to the appellant and it has stated, were received by it on 29th December, 1992. On 1st January, 1993 the appellant wrote to the Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai regarding the consignment. The appellant by this letter narrated the facts related to the shipment, that it was unable to trace t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... urier. Confiscation under clause (m) of the Section 111 of the Act for misdeclaration and penalties on M.J.; J.M. Shah, Chairman of the Company; G.M. Mehta, their Manager-Purchase under Section 112 were proposed. These persons submitted their reply to notice and was heard by the Commissioner at Delhi. Thereafter the Commissioner passed the order impugned in these appeals. 4. Notice also proposed to deny exemption available under Notification 159/92. Thereafter the Commissioner passed the order impugned in these appeals. By that order he did not accept the contention that the appellant had made attempt after receiving the goods to pay duty due on them declaring the letters to the Customs authorities i.e., Bombay as eye wash . He said that correct rate of duty applicable was 345% for the imports by courier. He held that benefit of Notification 208/81 was not available to the goods. He, however, noted that the imported goods, including those which were seized and subsequently released were utilised for manufacture of insulin injectible vials, which had been exported to Sri Lanka and that drawback of duty under Section 75 would be available, which can be claimed by making proper app ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... inging to the notice of the Department, the fact of the receipt of the goods and non payment of duty on them, and offer to pay duty is not in keeping with the effort to evade the customs duty. It is not unreasonable to speculate that if the appellant had not brought to the notice of the Department the Department would never be woken up. The appellant certainly would have taken a chance on it and would have done so as the Commissioner suggests. 6. The Departmental Representative sought to support the Commissioner s view by saying that these efforts were undertaken for M.J. to make payment to the supplier. This again is not realistic. The letter of credit had already been issued, providing for payment to be made against transaction of documents. In any event the fact that the appellant wrote to the Department the first letter within a couple of days from the receipt of the goods shows its attitude, and is a fact on record. We do not know what prevented the Department from taking action involving such a large amount of duty straightaway. We would in fact think that the seizure that was subsequently made was the result of this correspondence written by the appellant. 7. The Commiss ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... oods was accepted by the Counsel for the appellant. He, however, claims that benefit of Notification 208/81 has been wrongly denied by the Commissioner. This notification exempts from duty goods specified in the schedule annexed to it from the whole of the customs and additional duty of customs leviable on it. List A of the schedule is for life saving drugs or medicines. Entry 84 of this list specifies mono component insulin and entry 97 pork insulin zinc suspension injection . The Commissioner has held this notification not to apply for the reason that it applies to life saving drugs and equipments, and therefore, does not apply to raw materials used for the manufacture of medicines, and has further reasoned that zinc insulin crystals and insulin beef seed suspension which were imported are not mono component insulin. 10. The words used in the heading of schedule are life saving drugs and medicines . We think it is erroneous to conclude that merely from the heading of the said schedule only finished medicaments are exempted in this list and not goods out of which these medicaments could be made. Heading itself is misleading. The list includes many goods which are obviously ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
