KARACHI: The single bench of Special Customs Appellate Tribunal headed by Amjad Ali Bhoio dismissed an appeal filed by the Collector Customs, Model Custom Collectorate (Appraisement) West while setting aside the order in appeal and order in original passed by custom officers.
The appeal was filed by Collector Customs, Appraisement West III against an order in appeal passed by Collector of Custom (Appeals) dated 11-8-2015 and Al Malik Traders, Lahore who imported Rubber oil seals for various models of motorcycles, stem seal and Rubber Rollers at a declared value of Japanese Yen 216900 and sought clearance under Section 79 (1) of the Customs Act 1969. The Goods Declaration was selected for scrutiny a higher value invoice of 6144250 Japanese Yen was found , The difference between the declared invoice value and found was worked out to b of 5927350 Yen which was 2732 per cent higher. The customs department treated the case as of mis-declaration of value. It was held by the custom authorities that importer/respondent deliberately concealed the actual invoice value and thus evaded Custom Duty and other taxes to the tune of rupees 3,361,865 . The importer was served with a show cause notice on 30-1-2015 who submitted their reply on 17-3-2015 which was rejected by the Deputy Collector of Custom (Adjudication) who ordered confiscation of goods but with redemption fine at a rate of 35 per cent (rupees 1,848,603,) a personal penalty of rupees.
The importer represented by Nadeem A Mirza Advocate and Customs both went into appeal before Collector of Custom (Appeals) seeking remand of the case to Adjudicating Officer. The Collector Appeals dismissed the pleas against which the instant appeal before tribunal was filed.
The consultant for respondent Nadeem Mirza appearing before the tribunal raised the technical ground of jurisdiction that both the Assistant Collector and Deputy Collector did not had jurisdiction in terms of amount of duties and other taxes involved.
The tribunal agreed to the contention which was in line with the case law settled by the Supreme Court of Pakistan that if jurisdiction is assumed in excess of power conferred then entire proceedings would become illegal and subsequent orders passed would deemed to be treated without jurisdiction. The single bench held that no sooner the question of jurisdiction is determined in negative, the whole edifice built on such defective proceedings is bound to crumble.
The single bench then dismissed the appeal while recommending to Chairman FBR to take action against loss of revenue to national exchequer.