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TMI Blog2008 (6) TMI 167X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e-President and Shri A.K. Srivastava, Member (T) Shri S.N. Kantawala, Advocate, for Appellant. Shri T.Govil, DR, for the Respondent. [Order per: Jyoti Balasundaram, Vice-President.]- On receipt of information by DRI, that M/s. Ganpati Overseas had imported Tuners from Hongkong at grossly under valued price, thus evading huge amount of Customs duty, their CHA was asked to produce all the import documents in respect of the clearances for the last 2 years. From these details, it was established that the appellant firm had imported 20 consignments during the years 1997-98 1998-99. It was found that the Tuners and Saw Filters had been supplied by M/s. Arise Enterprises, Hong Kong of which the proprietor was Shri Suresh Chandra Sha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ns of Sec.114 (a) of the Customs Act 1962 and penalty of Rs. 5 lakhs each on Shri Yashpal Sharma and Shri Suresh Chandra Sharma under the provisions of Sec. 112(a) ibid. Hence these appeals. 4. We have heard both sides and carefully perused the written submissions filed by them. The case of the department is based on export declarations filed by the foreign supplier with the Hong Kong Customs. However, as rightly contended by the appellants, these declarations cannot be relied upon for the purpose of enhancement of value, not only for the reason that they were unattested photocopies, but also for the reason that the foreign supplier has explained that incorrect price had been erroneously mentioned in the declarations and that subsequen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as mis-declared in the import invoices rather than in export declaration and further, no explanation had been given for quoting two different values, while in the present case it is significant to note that there is no evidence of contemporary import at higher value, and further the foreign supplier has given explanation about the price initially declared in the export declaration which explanation has not been found to be incorrect. 5.2 In the case of Orson Electronics Pvt. Ltd. v. CC, Bombay [1996 (82) E.L.T. 499] no explanation had been offered regarding higher value declared in the export declaration before Japanese Customs, compared to the value declared to Indian Customs. Similar is the case of Weston Components Ltd v. CC, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and accepted by Hong Kong Customs. 7. The other piece of evidence relied upon by the department consists of the statements of Shri Yashpal Sharma and Suresh Chandra Sharma. These statements have been retracted at the earliest available opportunity. The decisions of the Apex Court in Surjeet Singh Chhabra v. UOI [1997 (89) E.L.T. 646 (S.C.) and K.I. Pavunny v. Astt.Collector, CE. Cochin [1997 (90) E.L.T. 241 (S.C.)] relied upon by the Revenue, do not advance the case of the department - in the case of K.I. Pavunny, the Apex Court has held that confessional statement of accused, even if retracted, is found to be voluntary and truthful, inculpatory portion of retracted confession can be relied upon to base conviction but prudence ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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