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TMI Blog1937 (11) TMI 2X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... igher than it would otherwise have been by reason of the appellants’ organisation and business methods is not a ground of exemption under Clause (a), though doubless their methods of business have improved the demand. That it was higher than it would have been, had not the appellants as monopolists carefully controlled the supply, may be equally true, but this again affords no escape from the clause if the case be otherwise within it. Their Lordships will humbly advise His Majesty that this appeal should be dismissed with costs. - 114/1936 - - - Dated:- 19-11-1937 - Lords Thankerton, Wright and Sir George Rankiu JUDGMENT The appellants are the Ford Motor Company of India, Limited. They import Ford Motor vehicles into India from Canada, and the questions raised by this appeal relate to the amount of customs duty payable upon 256 Ford motor cars consigned to the appellants which arrived in Bombay by the s.s. Algic on or about 9th January, 1929. The facts are not in dispute. The appellants have a monopoly of the supply of Ford vehicles to India. Save that they sometimes sell direct to their own employees or to Government they sell in India only to authorized dealers or d ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s Act the real value shall be deemed to tee : (a) the wholesale cash price, less trade discount, for which goods of the like kind and quality are sold, or are capable of being sold at the time and place of importation or exportation as the case may be, without any abatement or deduction whatever, except (in the case of goods imported) of the amount of duties payable on the importation thereof; or (b) where such price is not ascertainable the cost at which goods of like kind and quality could be delivered at such place, without any abatement or deduction except as aforesaid. The 256 Ford motor cars (Model A Vehicles) which arrived by the s.s. Algic in January, 1929, were assessed to customs duty by the Collector of Customs upon the view that Clause (a) of Section 30 applied to the case and that the price charged by the appellants to the distributors, excluding therefrom the allowance of ₹ 13.80, was such a wholesale cash price as is specified therein. The appellants disputed this assessment, contending that for the motor cars in question there was no such wholesale cash price ascertainable, that the duty should have been assessed under Clause (b) of Section 30, and that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... heir sales to their distributors are not in the circumstances evidence of any market value or any general wholesale price obtainable for a Ford car as soon as it has been landed in Bombay. It is accordingly maintained that while there may be cases in which the fact that certain cars are sold for a given prices is good ground for inferring that similar cars would fetch the same amounts, no such inference can here be made. The wholesale cash price of Clause (a) is meant, it is said, to be a price for hypothetical goods and to be independent of particular circumstances affecting the goods imported: so that the clause can operate only in the case of staple articles for which there is a market price or price current ascertainable from day to day. In support of this view the observations of Lord Blanesburgh delivering the judgment of the Judicial Committee in 59 I 258 at p. 266 Vacuum Oil Co. v. Secretary of State, (1932) 19 AIR PC 168 are called in aid : The wholesale cash price primarily in view is that price current for staple articles, the amount of which if not a subject of daily publication in the Press, is easily ascertainable in appropriate trade circles. It is for these re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... elates to a sale at the place of importation gave rise to differences of opinion between the Indian Courts. The trial Judge was much influenced by what Lord Blanesburgh in the case already cited had said as to the price being relieved of the loading representing post importation expenses . He held that only a sale ex ship satisfies the exact requirements of Clause (a). On the other hand, both Judges of the Appellate Bench held that a sale at Bombay with delivery f.o.r. Bombay complied fully with a reasonable interpretation of the clause. Their Lordships are in agreement with the Appellate Bench. It is difficult to suppose that if the Legislature had intended anything so precise as ex-ship , it would have used the more general phrase at the place of importation. The phrase f.o.r. at the main ports of entry quoted from the appellants price lists-comes within the meaning of the statutory phrase. This is the force given to the words at the place of importation by Macleod C.J. and Shah J. in 47 Bom 174 Vacuum Oil Co. v. Secretary of State. Before the Board the appellants learned Counsel did not contend for ex-ship but suggested that ex-wharf might not be too narrow and tha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ple, one may assume that there were in Bombay no Ford Model A vehicles left undisposed of from previous shipment, then on this view the correct test is to ask oneself whether, apart from and in addition to those which arrived by the s s Algic , further cars could have been sold in Bombay on or about 9th January, 1929, and if so, would they have fetched the same prices ? If this be the true interpretation of the statutory test, there is difficulty in holding it applicable to the present case, and colour is certainly lent to the contention that Clause (a) is intended only to have effect in the case of goods for which there is at the place of importation a market in the strict sense applicable only to staple commodities. But, in their Lordships view, this is a mis-interpretation of Clause (a). The application of the clause does not depend upon any hypothesis to the effect that at the time and place of importation an indefinite amount of further goods added to the available supply has had effect upon the wholesale price. Ordinarily at the time of making out the bill of entry there will not be an actual price relating to the goods themselves and complying with the requirements of Clau ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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