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2008 (10) TMI 185

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..... /KOL/2008 - Dated:- 16-10-2008 - Dr. Chittaranjan Satapathy, Member (T) and Shri D.N. Panda, Member (J) Shri K.K. Banerjee, Advocate, for the Appellant. Shri Manish Kumar, JDR, for the Respondent. [Order per : Chittaranjan Satapathy, Member (T)]. - Heard both sides. The written submission filed by the ld. Advocate for the appellants on 17-9-08 and the written submission filed by the ld. DR for the Department on 18-9-08, have also been taken into account. This case involves the valuation of 2,00,000 pieces of HCG Pregnancy Test Strip (width 2.5 mm) imported from China by the appellants against Bill of Entry No. 246646 dated 22-8-05. The appellants have claimed the assessment at the declared value of US $ 0.021 per piece (91 pai .....

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..... clared by the appellants to be abnormally low and the same was only about 15% of price of similar import. He states that the website of the supplier itself indicated the value of the goods and the declared price was less than 25% of the quoted price. He argues that the price of contemporaneous import and the details available from the manufacturer's own website, were used only in the context of Rule 10A of the Customs Valuation Rules, 1988 to form a view that there was every reason to doubt the truth and accuracy of the declared value rendering the same liable for rejection under the said Rule. Thereafter, the Department has proceeded to redetermine the value as provided under Rule 8 of the Customs Valuation Rules, 1988 as other Rules could .....

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..... , 1988 for rejection of declared value. Application of the said Rule does not require underinvoicing to be proved with hard evidence. The Rule itself talks about the reason to doubt the truth and accuracy of declared value. This Rule has been incorporated in the Customs Valuation Law based on WTO Ministerial decision to deal with gross mis-declaration of value which affect realisation of proper amount of Customs duties, particularly, in the case of developing countries. In our view, the fact that the declared value was about 15% of value of similar import and less than 25% of the price quoted by the very same supplier on its website was reason to raise doubt on truth and accuracy of the declared value. Such a doubt, when raised, enables the .....

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..... of different size is also of not much consequence as we find that the manufacturer-supplier has quoted the same price for different sizes ranging from 2.5 mm, 3.3 mm and 4.5 mm. It has not been demonstrated before us that the prices vary with the sizes. As regards the Chartered Accountant's Certificate dated 8-8-08 submitted on behalf of the appellants showing sale of the impugned items to retailer at Ahmedabad, the ld. DR has taken objection for placing reliance on the same and states that this Certificate was not produced earlier and the same remains unverified. We agree with the objection taken by the ld. DR as the Chartered Accountant's Certificate certifying local sales within India, cannot be used as a basis for valuation since such .....

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