The Kolkata Bench of Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) has quashed the penalty against steamer agents on the ground that the consignment without proper documents cannot be exported without customs official sanction.
The bench of R. Muralidhar (Judicial Member) and K. Anpazhakan (Technical Member) has observed 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 Let Export Order (LEO) allowing the consignment to be exported out of India.
The appellant is acting as a steamer agent carrying out import and export activities on behalf of various clients. On the ground that the appellant had not followed proper procedures and had exported goods for which the Let Export Order (LEO) had been cancelled, it was alleged by the Revenue that the appellant had contravened the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.
After due process, a penalty of Rs.2,00,000 under Section 114 of the Customs Act, 1962 was imposed on them.
The appellant contended that the exporter had asked them to cancel the first set of documents and wanted to export the same through another shipping line; the appellant, took up this work and subsequently informed them that after 21 days, the same ship would be able to carry the container exported by the exporter. Once again, one more set of documents were prepared.
The appellant pointed out that just before the same was to be loaded, the exporter-CHA informed the appellant that they were planning to cancel the exports. The appellant did not get any further information from the exporter-CHA.
On the other hand, after finding that the website of the Customs showed the details of the container number as “ready for shipment”, the appellant presumed that there was no bar for loading the consignment in the concerned ship and accordingly, they loaded the same.
The department submitted that though the LEO was cancelled by the Customs authorities, still the appellant had loaded the consignment on the ship, because of which they are liable to be penalized under Section 114 of the Customs Act, 1962. Accordingly, he justifies the penalty imposed on the appellant.
The tribunal held that the remittance had not been received by the exporter.
The CESTAT found that the appellant has contravened any of the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962, as alleged.
Case Details
Case Title: M/s. Samudera Shipping Line (India) Pvt. Ltd. Versus Commissioner of Customs (Port)
Case No.: Customs Appeal No. 75641 of 2021
Date: 10.12.2024
Counsel For Appellant: Biswarup Mukherjee
Counsel For Respondent: Tariq Sulaiman
