Customs
Adjudication Order for assessment :- Under Section 17 of the Customs Act, after filing of the Bill of Entry, the assessment is to be done. This assessment is an appealable adjudication order. But in practice, nobody passes an order. The signature of the officer is deemed adjudication. Even if the officer makes a mistake in this order and the importer pays excess duty due to the mistake of the assessing officer, he is not entitled to a refund unless he challenges this assessment order as held by several decisions - to cite just one. But he really has no order and he has doubts about going to the Commissioner (Appeals) with an assessed Bill of Entry.
Now the law is made a little clearer. The importer is to confirm his acceptance of the order in writing. If he does not, the Assessing officer is required to give a speaking order within 15 days from the date of assessment.
Interest on Provisional assessments – Rule 7 of Central Excise Rules imported to Customs Act: The Revenue department is now concentrating more on interest than duty. In Central Excise there is a provision to collect interest on the differential duty on finalization of provisional assessments. To be fair to the Government, there is a provision to grant interest on refund too. There was no such provision in the Customs Act. This is made good now. Section 18 is amended to provide for interest on finalization of provisional assessments. Rule 7 of the Central Excise Rules is imported straight into the Customs Act. But now will the CAG find fault with the government for not doing this import three years ago and thereby losing Crores of Rupees by way of interest?
Arrest – Beware before you sign – you may land up in a lock up.: - Under the Customs Act, arrests could be made only for offences under Section 135, mainly dealing with evasion and smuggling. Now Section 104 is amended to give powers to officers to arrest for offence under Section 132 and 133 dealing with false declarations and obstruction of officers respectively. And the punishment for these offences was a maximum imprisonment of six months. Now this is enhanced to two years. If the officer feels that your declaration of value is wrong, he can simply arrest you. Are we in for a fiscal emergency?
Summons – section 14 of the Central Excise Act imported: Yet another import of a vital provision of law. It is a little known fact that the power to summon under Central Excise is far wider than in Customs. While in Central Excise any person can be summoned in connection with any inquiry, in Customs the summons could be only in connection with smuggling of goods, under section 108 of the Customs Act. This was the position even under Section 171A of the Sea Customs Act, 1878. This lapse is also made good now after more than a century! Now a Customs officer can summon any person for any inquiry under the Customs Act.
Provisional release of seized goods - A new Section 110 A has been inserted to provide for release of seized goods under bond.
Other Provisions: Changes identical to those made in Central Excise relating to attachment of property, immunity for payment of full duty, interest and 25% penalty are made in Customs too. Please see our Breaking News.