Goods Loaded Without Proper Documents Can't Be Exported Without Clearance By Customs Officials: CESTAT Kolkata Sets Aside Penalty
Kapil Dhyani
9 Jan 2025 4:10 PM IST
Stating that goods wrongly loaded by the steamer agent could not have been exported without clearance by the Customs officials themselves, the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal at Kolkata set aside the penalty imposed under Section 114 of the Customs Act, 1962.
The provision stipulates a penalty for attempting to export goods improperly.
The Appellant, a steamer agent, was saddled with Rs. 2 lakh penalty for exporting goods without Let Export Order (LEO).
Noting that the goods had been successfully exported and remittance against it had been received, the bench comprising Judicial Member R. Muralidhar and Technical Member K. Anpazhakan said the same could not have been possible without clearance by the Customs Department. Thus, the penalty imposed on Appellant would be bad in law. It said,
“We find that without the clearance of the Customs Officials, even if the appellant had loaded the consignment without proper documents, the final export could not have taken place, unless the LEO is signed by the concerned officials. The fact that the consignment was finally exported shows that at some point or the other, the Customs Officials would have signed the LEO allowing the consignment to be exported out of India. In such a case, we do not find that the appellant has contravened any of the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962, as alleged.”
It was the Appellant's case that just before the goods were to be loaded, the exporter informed him that they were planning to cancel the exports. However, since the appellant did not get any further information from the exporter, he checked the Customs website which showed the details of the container as “ready for shipment”. Thus, the appellant presumed that there was no bar for loading the consignment.
CESTAT found strength in the appellant's argument. It also noted that the Adjudicating Authority had itself found that the export remittance was received against the exported consignment.
Accordingly, relief was granted.
Appearance: Shri Biswarup Mukherjee, Advocate; Shri Ramanuj Roy Choudhury, Advocate For the Appellant; Shri Tariq Sulaiman, Authorized Representative For the Respondent
Case title: M/s. Samudera Shipping Line (India) Pvt. Ltd. v. Commissioner of Customs (Port)
Case no.: Customs Appeal No. 75641 of 2021