9911796707
TMI Blog2023 (8) TMI 1003X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... aveen Kumar was terminated from services. Sri T.S. Narayanan, who is the General Manager of the appellant authorized courier has submitted before the officers that all the consignments were booked by M/s.Jupiter Import Export Pte. Ltd., Singapore. The appellant has cooperated with the investigation so as to bring out the truth. On appreciation of the evidence, we do not find grounds to hold that the appellant had played any role in the incident. In such circumstances, the order of revocation of the license cannot be sustained and requires to be set aside. However, as the appellant has not obtained authorization from the importer, the forfeiture of security deposit would be adequate. Forfeiture of Rs.10 lakhs is on the higher side - forfeiture of Rs.5,00,000/- would be sufficient. Appeal allowed in part. - MS. SULEKHA BEEVI C.S., MEMBER (JUDICIAL) AND MR. VASA SESHAGIRI RAO, MEMBER (TECHNICAL) Mr. S. Raghunathan, Advocate Ms.Sharanya Vaidhiyanathan, Advocate For the Appellant Mr. Harendra Singh Pal, Assistant Commissioner (A.R) For the Respondent ORDER Brief facts are that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Chennai Unit, on receipt of specific in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... M/s.DPEX Courier and he along with Kannan joined M/s.Aviation Star. During January 2013, Shri Kannan approached him and requested to clear courier consignments, which was arriving by appellant firm and contained cameras meant for his friend. Sri Kannan also stated to him that the said consignments would be declared as booklets. Sri Kannan promised to give Rs.5000/- for each consignment cleared and that he has cleared 7 such consignments for Sri Kannan. It was deposed by Naveen Kumar that Kannan used to inform airway bills of the consignment over phone and was responsible for customs clearance; that Naveen Kumar used to download import manifest of the appellant from the server and would remove the airway bills from the manifest. Sri Naveen Kumar would then take the altered manifest to the courier terminal for submission to customs custodian. The packages would be declared as documents and would be cleared as documents so that such packages are not scanned. As per the instructions of Sri Kannan, Shri Naveen Kumar used to give packages to Kannan s friend waiting outside and Sri Kannan used to pay him for such work. It is stated that Sri Naveen Kumar used to later update the system at ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r terminal. Sri Kannan would inform Naveen Kumar over phone as to whom the consignments is to be handed over; that Kannan has arranged such clearances through Naveen Kumar since October 2012. Sri Kannan was arrested on 15.05.2013 and remanded to judicial custody. Subsequently, he was enlarged on bail. 4. Based on the above investigations, the present show cause notice dt. 14.10.2013 was issued to the appellant under Regulation 14 of the Courier Imports and Exports (Clearance) Regulations, 1998 proposing to revoke the registration as authorized courier and also for forfeiture of the security deposit. After due process of law, the original authority vide order dt. 28.04.2014 ordered for revocation of registration granted to the appellant as authorized courier and also ordered for forfeiture of Rs.10 lakhs being the security deposit made by them for registration. They then filed representation before Chief Commissioner who then vide order dt. 23.07.2014 upheld the same. Aggrieved, the appellant is now before the Tribunal. 5. Ld. Counsel Sri Raghunathan, Advocate assisted by Ms.Sharanya Vaidhiyanathan, Advocate appeared and argued for the appellant. It is submitted that the appel ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... er 40,000 pieces / consignments with no issues. The packages in question which have been manipulated as opposed to the said volumes handled by the appellant would clearly indicate the fact that the appellant had no role to play in such manipulation, which had been committed by Mr. Naveen Kumar and his aids. That therefore, the appellant ought not to have been penalized for such deviance. 7. Ld. Counsel adverted to the show cause notice and submitted that the allegation raised is that the appellant has violated Regulation 13 (a) of Courier Imports and Exports (Clearance) Regulations, 1998. The said regulation prescribes the obligations of an Authorized Courier. It is stated that the appellant had an obligation to obtain an authorization, consignee of the import goods for whom such courier has imported goods. In the present case, the only infraction on the part of appellant is that such authorization was not obtained from the consignee. Ld. Counsel submitted that in the present case, the entire manipulation and clandestine clearance of the parcels/consignments was done without the knowledge of the appellant and by an employee of the appellant. In para-17 of the SCN it is alleged t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... penalty of Rs.10 lakhs has been imposed upon the appellant under Section 112 (a) of the Customs Act, 1962. The appellant has not filed an appeal against such order and paid the penalty. This is an admission on the part of appellant. Revocation of license is therefore legal and proper. It is prayed that the appeal may be dismissed. 11. Heard both sides. 12. The appellant had been issued a show cause notice proposing to impose penalty under Section 112 (a) of the Customs Act, 1962. The present SCN is issued under the provisions of Courier Imports and Exports (Clearance) Regulations, 1998 (herein referred to as Courier Regulations, 1998). The allegation in the SCN is that the appellant has failed to comply with Regulation 13 of the Courier Regulations. The relevant part of SCN is as under : 16. From the above it appears that M/s.UPS Jet Air Express Private Limited, 3/26, 10th Avenue, Ashok Nagar, Chennai 600 083 have failed to comply with Regulation 13 of the Courier Imports and Exports (Clearance) Regulations, 1998 as amended by the Courier Imports and Exports (Clearance) Amendment Regulations 2010 issued vide Notification No.75/2010 Customs (N.T) dated 12/08/2010 as de ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
