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TMI Blog2024 (7) TMI 1120X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ndorsed by the officers concerned. There are no justification for issuance of the show cause notice to the appellant under section 28(4) of the Customs Act invoking suppression and the larger period of limitation. It is on record that the appellant had voluntarily paid duty in cash along with interest, even prior to issuance of the show cause notice dated 10.04.2015. When both the Revenue officials as well as their own assessing system - the EDI, had accepted the initial debit of duty through scrips, which subsequently was made good in cash along with interest, the law itself provided for no show cause notice to be issued in terms of the provisions of said section 28 itself. There are no justification in the department s action, seeking to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 2. The appellants is a proprietory concern and imported twelve consignments of fresh apples as per table hereinbelow : Sl. No. BE no. Date 01 5227886 17.4.2014 02 5304572 25.04.2024 03 5376779 2.5.2014 04 5581643 23.5.2014 05 5443126 10.5.2014 06 5513930 16.5.2014 07 5549303 20.5.2014 08. 5539588 19.5.2014 09 5672125 2.6.2014 10 5736848 7.6.2014 11 5776271 11.6.2014 12 5820939 16.6.2014 3. Import duty on the aforesaid consignments of fresh apples was paid by way of scrips issued under the Focused Market Scheme (FMS), Focused Product Scheme (FPS) and Vishesh Krishi Gram Udyog Yojna (VKGUY) by DGFT (Refer Chapter 3 of the Foreign Trade Policy, 2009-2014). The transferrable duty credit scrips were purchased by the appellant from the open marke ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s.19,29,784/- accrued thereon during the period 2014 to March 2015. 5. Subsequently the appellants were issued a show cause notice for confiscation of goods imported and invocation of penalty amongst others. 6. We have heard Shri S.C. Ratho, Ld.Consultant for the appellant and Shri S.Debnath, Ld.Authorized Representative for the department and have perused the case records. 7. We find that there is nothing on record to suggest any culpability on the part of the appellant for having debited the duty through scrips. It is common knowledge that such duty payment debits are required to be endorsed by the officers concerned. We therefore find no justification for issuance of the show cause notice to the appellant under section 28(4) of the Custo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... de via duty scrips, was done out of ignorance. The same was also accepted by the department. As vigilant customs it was for the department to have pointed out the anomaly in the first stage itself at the time of assessment. This however was not done. The department therefore cannot affix the blame for their own omissions on the importer, particularly so when it is established from records that no sooner the anomalous situation was brought to the notice of the appellant importer by the DRI, all duty payments were promptly made in cash along with interest. For reasons foregoing, we find no merits in the orders of the lower authority imposing penalty on the appellant under Section 114A, initially for an amount of Rs.23.00 Lakh and then subsequ ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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