Includibilty of ship demurrage charges in the assessable value- the saga continues – yet another draft circular
The Government had lost more than a thousand Crores of rupees because the Board which issues circulars and forgets them, forgot to withdraw a circular in spite of a favourable order from Tribunal. Remember the IOCL case? Board had vide letter issued in F.No.467/01/2002-Cus.V, dated 20th October 2004, conveyed that in light of the decision of the Board to file review petition before the Supreme Court of India, in the case of M/s.Indian Oil Corporation all importations prior to 02.03.2001 may be kept provisional. The Government’s review petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court on 2.3.2005 for an inordinate unexplained delay of 255 days in filing the petition. It took the Board more than 10 months to come up with a circular that Supreme Court decision has to be followed till 2.3.2001. What a respect for the highest judicial forum! What happens after 2.3.2001? Board is not sure. It will come up with clarification soon. Why not now?
CIRCULAR NO. , Dated: January 12, 2006