The Ahmedabad bench of Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) has allowed shipping bills conversions from drawback scheme to advance authorization scheme beyond three months.
The bench of Ramesh Nair (Judicial Member) and Raju (Technical Member) has observed that the limitation of three months was introduced by the Circular 36/2010 dated 23.09.2010. The High Court of Gujarat in the case of Messrs Mahalaxmi Rub Tech Limited has set aside the said requirement of filing the application for conversion within a period of three months as ultravirus, Article 14 and 19(1)(g) of Constitution of India as well as ultravirus section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962. The special leave petition filed by the Revenue against the said order before Hon’ble Apex Court has been rejected.
The appellant/assessee had made a request for amendment of the shipping bill under Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962. At the time of filing the shipping bills the appellants had filed the shipping bills under draw back scheme however they later on sought to convert the same to shipping bills under advance authorization scheme.
The request was rejected by the original adjudicating authority on the ground that the request for conversion was made by the exporter beyond the period of three months.
The requirement of filing the amendment application under section 149 within the period of three months was introduced not by law but by CBEC Circular No. 36/2010-Cus dated 23.09.2010 in para 3(a).
The tribunal held that the sole ground for rejection is the delay of more than three months in filing the application in terms of Circular No. 36/2010-Cus dated 23.09.2010. Since the Circular itself has been set aside by the High Court of Gujarat, reliance on the Circular cannot be sustained.
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Case Details
Case Title: PCBL Ltd. Versus C.C. Mundra
Case No.: Customs Appeal No. 10073 of 2024- DB
Date: 28.11.2024
Counsel For Appellant: CA Niraj Baheti
Counsel For Respondent: Sanjay Kumar
