Goods required for Construction of Roads - A googly is bowled

By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, FEB 18, 2014: TAKE a look at the following entry from the longish Customs Tariff notification 12/2012-Cus dated 17.03.2012 and the referred list appended to the notification.

Table

List 16 (See S. No. 368 of the Table)

(1) Omitted.(bynotfn 5/2014-Cus)

(2) Omitted.(bynotfn 5/2014-Cus)

(3) Slip form/fixed form paver finisher for laying concrete pavement

(4) Surface dressing equipment (self propelled) (chips spreader)

(5) Slurry seal machine for filling up cracks in roads

(6) Omitted (by notfn 5/2014-Cus)

(7) Mobile bridge inspection unit

(8) Mechanical broom with blower

(9) Toll collection and traffic control equipment

(10) Electronic Total station instrument for topographic survey

(11) Global Positioning System (GPS) Instrument

(12) Stone crushing (cone type) plants

(13) Hydraulically operated self propelled piling rig with accessories

(14) Hydraulically operated rough terrain self propelled 100 tons crane with telescopic boom

(15) Hydraulically operated self propelled soil boring equipment with casing pipes for deep earth anchor

(16) Omitted (by notfn 5/2014-Cus)

(17) Automatic asphalt extraction equipment

(18) Fully automatic, hydraulically operated, pre-cast segment moulds

(19) Hydraulic gantry crane of 100 tonnes capacity for launching truss

(20) Omitted.(bynotfn 5/2014-Cus)

(21) Tunnel Excavation & Lining Equipments. (substituted by notfn 5/2014-Cus)

Vide amending notification 5/2014-Cus , a new entry numbered as Sl. No. 368A has made its appearance.

It reads -

The List 16A is as below -

List 16A (See S.No. 368A of the Table)

"(1) Hot mix plant batch type with electronic controls and bag type filter arrangements more than 120 T/hour capacity,

(2) Electronic paver finisher (with sensor device) for laying bituminous pavement 7m size and above,

(3) Kerb laying machine,

(4) Mobile concrete pump placer of 90/120 cum/hr capacity,

(5) Skid steer loaders,

(6) Drilling jumbos, Loaders, Excavators, Shotcrete machine and 3 stage crushers.”.

The above entries in List 16A, serial no. 1 to 5 are the ones that existed in List 16 at serial numbers 1, 2, 6, 16 & 20 prior to the amendment. And the serial no. 6 is carved out of the earlier serial no. 21 which read - Tunnel Excavation & Lining Equipments consisting of Drilling jumbos, Loaders, Excavators, Shotcrete machine and 3 stage crushers.

The contents of Condition no. 9 are to be satisfied for claiming exemption under both the entries Sl. No. 368 and 368A and since it remains the same, it is not extracted here.

But why this separation into two different entries, one may ask?

As they say, the devil lies in the details.

Whereas in Serial no. 368 the goods specified in list 16 are subject to Nil rate of basic duty of Customs and the Additional duty, serial no. 368A provides Nil rate of duty ONLY in the matter of Basic duty of Customs and against the Additional duty entry in column 5, there is no Nil rate shown but a single dash ' -

This would mean that in respect of the 'specified road construction machinery' listed in List 16A, there is no exemption from Additional duty of Customs viz. CVD.

And the reason can be found in the Speech of the Finance Minister while presenting the Interim Budget 2014-2015 yesterday.

In paragraph 76 (v) he says, -

(v) To encourage domestic production of specified road construction machinery, I propose to withdraw the exemption from CVD on similar imported machinery.

In fact, the Board should have also taken this as an opportunity to clarify the term "Electronic paver finisher (with sensor device) for laying bituminous pavement 7m size and above" by way of an Explanation as the same is the subject matter before the Larger Bench in the case of Ramky Infrastructure Ltd. [ 2013-TIOL-1248-CESTAT-MUM].

The question referred to the Larger Bench is 'whether it is capacity of machine to lay pavement 7m size width that determines exemption or whether it should be machine that should have width 7m size'.

Is this too much that the Trade asks from the benign Board?