Page 236 - ELT_1st June 2020_VOL 372_Part 5th

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tioning “N.A.” and requested that the Sl. No. 10 be amended to read as;
“10. (a) Amount of duty accepted as payable for settlement.
Rs. 5,00,000/-
(b) Interest on the said admitted duty. Rs. 12,63,545/-”
6.1 The Bench has carefully gone through submissions of the applicant.
Out of the two deficiencies (listed at Para 4 above), the applicant has rectified one
by filing the requisite number of sets as required under the rules. But as regards
the other deficiency, i.e. non-payment of interest on the accepted duty liability,
the applicant has submitted that the amount of Rs. 17,63,545/- is inclusive of in-
terest and they have sought to modify the accepted liability under Sl. No. 10 of
the application by splitting the accepted amount as Rs. 5 Lakh towards duty and
Rs. 12,63,545/- towards interest. The applicant’s request for another date for
hearing cannot be acceded to, in view of the limited timeline available under the
law to decide the issue of admissibility.
6.2 The Bench finds that the said contention that the accepted amount
of Rs. 17,63,545/- includes duty and interest is contrary to the facts as disclosed
in their application. It is seen that at Sl. No. 10 of the application, the applicant
had clearly indicated as under :
“10. (a) Amount of duty accepted as payable for settlement.
Rs. 17,63,545/-.
(b) Interest on the said admitted duty. N.A.”
6.3 Further, the Applicant has also submitted a working of their duty
liability at page - 190 of the Application Paper Book, wherein they have stated
that “After paying Rs. 17,63,545.00 (i.e. 50% of the proportionate duty payable),”
which clearly indicates that Rs. 17,63,545/- was paid as duty. Further, at sub-
para 12.1 (page 9-10 of the Application) under ‘Brief Facts’, it is stated that they
have deposited Rs. 5 Lakh vide Challan No. 3210 dated 29-10-2018 towards duty
during investigation and Rs. 12,63,545/- vide Challan No. 213 dated 19-8-2019
towards the balance amount. Scrutiny of the said challans (at page 35 & 36 of the
Paper Book) also reveals that the payments were towards duty and not interest.
Thus, the contention of the applicant that the accepted amount of Rs. 17,63,545/-
was inclusive of interest is not factually correct.
6.4 Accordingly, the Bench finds that no interest has been paid on the
accepted duty amount and the deficiency subsists. Under normal situation, non-
payment of interest would have attracted the bar of admissibility under Section
127B of the Act. But, on closer scrutiny of the provision of Section 127B of the Act
vis-a-vis the SCN, we find that the relevant charging section of the SCN, i.e. Para
15 (i) & (ii) reads as under :
“15. Now, therefore, M/s. Harrisons Industries, At-Hastings Chamber,
7C, Kiran Shankar Roy road, Kolkata- 700001 is hereby called upon to show
cause to the Commissioner of Customs, (Import-II), Mumbai, Custom
House, Ballard Estate, Mumbai-400 001, within 30 days of receipt of this no-
tice, as to why :-
(i) Customs duty of Rs. 1,26,96,503/- (Rupees One Crore Twenty-Six
Lakh Ninety-Six Thousand Five Hundred and Three) only should not
be demanded in terms of Notification No. 97/2004-Cus., dated 17-9-
2007 read with the terms of the Bond dated 22-5-2007 executed by it
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