By TIOL News Service

MUMBAI, JULY 16, 2016: THE appellant, a courier company,were imposed a penalty of Rs.50,000/- in a case involving misdeclaration of goods valued at Rs.8 lakhs.

Before the lower authorities,the appellant contended that they are a courier company and it was not possible for them to ensure that the goods declared by the sender are exactly the same. They relied on the Tribunal decision in Prerna Textile Inds. wherein it is held that where there is wrong declaration of value of the goods by the Consignor or consignee, no guilt can be adjudged to the Courier.

The Revenue authorities relied on Regulation 13 which required the courier company to advise the client to comply with the law of the land and to exercise 'due diligence' to ascertain the correctness and completeness of any information which they submit to the proper officer with reference to any work related to the clearance of import or export of goods. After holding that the appellants failed to exercise 'due diligence', the lower authorities, as mentioned, imposed a penalty of Rs.50,000/- on the appellant.

In the matter of the appeal filed before the CESTAT, the appellant reiterated the submissions made before the lower authorities.

The AR supported the impugned order.

The Bench observed -

"4. ... I find that the Regulation 13 of the Courier Imports and Export (Clearance) Regulations, 1998 prescribed an obligation to authorized couriers shall exercise due diligence to ascertain the correctness and completeness of any information which he submits to the proper officer with reference to any work related to the clearance of import goods or of export goods. It is noticed that the case was detected when the import document revealed that the weight of the said consignment was abnormal for the declared goods and the said consignment was for this reason taken up for examination. It is felt that when Customs could detect the mis-declaration simply by examining the weight of the consignment with respect to declaration made, it could have been possible for Courier Agency exercising 'due diligence' to detect the same."

Concluding that due diligence had not been exercised by the courier company, the CESTAT upheld imposition of penalty. However, noting the infringement and facts of the case, the penalty imposed was reduced from Rs.50,000/- to Rs.25,000/-.

The Appeal was partly allowed.

(See 2016-TIOL-1755-CESTAT-MUM)