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TMI Blog2024 (9) TMI 400X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Trade (DGFT). They have no assistance either from the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP), the notification concerned or any other authority. Indeed, that was not in the ken of the adjudicating authority as it should have been. Customs authorities, though not unfamiliar with similar , are permitted to draw upon that within the restricted framework set out for the purposes of section 14 of Customs Act, 1962. In the absence of any discussion by the adjudicating authority in the impugned order, it can only be speculated that the singular approach of customs authorities to goods has been transposed on products which, in the context of the description deployed in the Letter of Permission (LoP) issued to the appellant and plea of assessee, should have be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... se Act, 1944, is about the scope of expressions deployed in paragraph 6.8 of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) when appended to notification under section 5A of Central Excise Act, 1944. The cross-over has occurred as the appellant, M/s Cipla Ltd, is a hundred percent export oriented unit (EOU) issued with Letter of Permission under chapter 6 of the Foreign Trade Policy under the supervisory oversight of the jurisdictional Development Commissioner with jurisdictional central excise authorities concerned with receipt of duty exempt goods as well as clearances for export and into the domestic market. In enforcing the terms of the notification no. 23/2003-CE dated 31st March 2003 issued under section 5A of Central Excise Act, 1944, the adjudicati ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rts. The computation of threshold eligibility for effecting such clearances, and subject to fixation by the Development Commissioner, is free on board (FOB) value of exports being in excess of imported inputs consumed during the year combined with amortized, at 10%, value of imported capital goods. Taking into account the composition of duty liability, notification no. 23/2003-CE dated 31st March 2003 has scaled down the levy by half the basic customs duty (BCD on the goods so cleared. 3. Entitlement to such clearances is contingent upon compliance with paragraph 6.8 of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) being the condition set out in the said notification. The relevant issue in the said policy of 2004-09, and incorporated in 2008, is (a) .With ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t, 1944 as authority. The peculiarity therein is that exemptions, in the ordinary course and unless specifically stated, are not available to units such as that of the appellant. Furthermore, such units are subjected to higher duty liability than manufacturers of the same goods elsewhere. It would, thus, appear that, within the Central Excise Act, 1944, a special place and special law has been carved out for such units as well as, and formerly till carved out as a separate enactment, export processing zone (EPZ) unit. It is, therefore, moot if, indeed, the principle enunciated in re Indian Aluminium Co Ltd and in re Mihir Textiles Ltd find application here. We are parking this aspect for the nonce and may have to revert thereto should our f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... missioner while according approval to the submission on behalf of respective assessees that they had been in compliance with the stipulations in the respective notifications. We are also conscious that our appellate jurisdiction, while statutorily endowed, is framed within orders of jurisdictional Commissioners of Customs and of jurisdictional Commissioners of Customs (Appeals) acting under the authority of law; a plea of lack of jurisdiction vested in customs authorities for a particular excludes our jurisdiction, too, which is inconsistent with seeking our appellate jurisdiction. 8. The issue is simple enough when viewed through the prism of cross-jurisdictional lexicon. Customs authorities, empowered to deal with goods in their statutory ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... find force in the submission of the learned Counsel for the Appellants that once the Development Commissioner has allowed them the permission to sell the goods up to a fixed value in the DTA, the Revenue cannot disallow the clearance and demand Central Excise duty on the ground that the entitlement was required to be restricted to 50% of the FOB value of Physical Exports. If the Revenue is of the view that the value of deemed export should not have been taken into consideration for arriving at the value of goods to be allowed to be sold in the DTA, the matter should have been taken up with the Development Commissioner who had initially accorded the permission to the Appellants. This has been the consistent view of the Appellate Tribunal wh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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