Important judgement delivered by Honorable Supreme Court of India in case of Lewek Altair Shipping Pvt. Ltd., versus CC Vijayawada.

As per the terms of said judgement, Honorable Supreme Court of India has upheld the Honourable CESTAT Hyderabad Judgement which is specifying the following.

1)      As long as the goods are described correctly as per invoice and there is no mis-declaration of any sort be the penal provision cannot be levied.

2)      The importer have filed bill of entry as per their bonafied belief and claiming of classification/ exemption notification is an interpretative matter and cannot make goods liable for confiscation.

3)      As per para 7 of Honourable Supreme Court of India it is observed that;

In our considered view, claiming an incorrect classification or the benefit of an ineligible exemption notification does not amount to making a false or incorrect statement because it is not an incorrect description of the goods or their value but only a claim made by the assesse. Thus, even if the appellant makes a wrong classification or claims ineligible exemption, he will not be liable to penalty under section 114AA of the Customs Act, 1962. Further, in these cases, we have already upheld the classification claimed by the appellant and therefore find that no penalty is imposable on the appellant.