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2006 (7) TMI 511

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..... /s. Tata Iron Steel Company Ltd. filed five bills of entries for clearance of the goods described as Non-alloy 100% Re-Rollable scrap consisting of Plate Cuttings and claimed duty free clearance under Notification No. 204/92 against advance licence. (ii) The examination of the goods covered by the said bill of entry by the Special Task Force revealed that the goods consisted MS/SS pipes which were serviceable in nature. Out of the total 23 containers, four containers were released as they were found to contain re-rollable scrap, as declared in the bill of entry. (iii) In respect of remaining 19 containers, a view was entertained that the same contained old and used seamless pipe, which were serviceable in nature. As such, 100% ex .....

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..... question were scrap in terms of the definition of waste and scrap as per Note 6(a) of Section XV of Customs Tariff Act. He also observed that as per SGS Certificates, 80% of the pipe pieces were found internally with a coat of thick oil, cement slurry and the balance pipes which was dried internally were found heavily rusted from inside and the pipes were found gas cut with pipes edge unfinished and irregular and in different lengths and about 5% of the pipes were found bend and no material/pipe classification marks were visible. He accordingly observed that a buyer of pipes to use them in definite length as pipes would not purchase such pipes for installation and due to the irregular edges and gas cuttings, and bends, the pipes cannot be .....

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..... Vol.-II of the EXIM Policy 1992 97. 6. Further he has examined SGS reports and observed as :- From the above report of SGS it would appear that the goods were positively old and used rusty/heavily rusty pipes originating from an oil field and unless the end-use was specified, commenting on the serviceability was not possible, and that 98% of the material was found to be only pipe pieces and therefore in their opinion the material did not seem to be in conformity with the cargo descriptive in the B/L No. AEL/KLT/047 dated 4-5-94, wherein it was described as non-alloy 100PCT re-rollable scrap consisting of plate cuttings. On the face of the same, one is tempted to take the view that the goods are not covered as re-rollable scrap a .....

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..... ns. (ii) The waste and scrap as covered under Heading 72.04 which is defined as above, however, this heading excludes articles which with or without repair or renovations can be reused for their former purpose or can be adapted for other uses; it also excludes articles which can be re-fashioned as metal. (iii) Since the material cannot be used for the purpose i.e. of pipes, being choked, pitted and having irregular ends and gas cuts and bends, and of different lengths, they cannot be classified as pipes. In any case, during the relevant period the HSN classification notes were not applicable for the purposes of Import Trade Control. The HSN Tariff Notes are not applicable for licensing purposes. The Chartered Engineers cer .....

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..... ot hollow sections and therefore not covered by the licence. I would therefore rely on the totality of Mr. Moondhra s statement who is an experienced re-roller, to find the goods under import to be re-rollable scrap. (e) I find that wherever the licensing authority do not want to permit the import of hollow sections for raw materials for re-rolling, they have, in the DEEC books given a definition, e.g. in DEEC Book (125587/CAL) specifies the scope of MS Re-rollable scrap and MS billets as permissible and confines it to all products other than hollow sections. In the present case, there is no restrictions to the words re-rollable scraps or exclusions of hollow sections. In this view of the matter, I am of the view that in the fact .....

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..... ble article of mild steel are required to be held as waste and scrap. 9. We do not find any merits in the above contention of the Revenue, the adjudicating authority has held that the pipes were rusted heavily from inside and were having uneven edges and were choked and blocked with alloy and cement slurry. The Revenue has not advanced any evidence to counter the above findings of the adjudicating authority, in which case it has to be held that the lengths of pipes found in the imported material cannot be held to be pipes of serviceable nature and have been rightly held to be waste and scrap, in the light of the definition of the same as appearing in Note 6(a) of Section XV of the Customs Act (sic) [Customs Tariff Act]. We find no infirmi .....

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