Customs -Remission of Duty - Volatile Goods - Government Supersedes a 52 year old Notification
SECTION 70 of the Customs Act reads as:
SECTION 70. Allowance in case of volatile goods. - (1) When any ware-housed goods to which this section applies are at the time of delivery from a warehouse found to be deficient in quantity on account of natural loss, the Assistant Commissioner of Customs or Deputy Commissioner of Customs may remit the duty on such deficiency.
(2) This section applies to such warehoused goods as the Central Government, having regard to the volatility of the goods and the manner of their storage, may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify.
In pursuance of this power, the Government issued Notification No. 122-Cus dated 1963 specifying the following goods to which the provisions of the section shall apply when they are deposited in a warehouse:
(1) aviation fuel, motor spirit, mineral turpentine, acetone, menthol, raw naphtha, vaporising oil, kerosene, high speed diesel oil, batching oil, diesel oil, furnace oil and Ethylene Dichloride kept in tanks and liquid helium gas kept in containers:
(2) wine, spirit and beer, kept in casks.
Superseding the above notification, the Government has issued a new notification specifying the goods afresh. They are
1. aviation fuel, motor spirit, mineral turpentine, acetone, methanol, raw naphtha, vaporizing oil, kerosene, high speed diesel oil, batching oil, diesel oil, furnace oil and ethylene dichloride, kept in tanks;
2. wine, spirit and beer, kept in casks;
3. liquid helium gas kept in containers; and
4. crude stored in caverns.
It is really great that the CBEC still has a notification issued 52 years ago, which they have superseded now.
Incidentally, CBEC had recently specified 'crude', imported and stored in underground rock caverns as a class of goods in respect of which no interest shall be charged under the said section 61 - see notification dated 23.12.2015 & .
Notification No. , Dated: January 11, 2016