Home Case Index All Cases Customs Customs + AT Customs - 2023 (12) TMI AT This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2023 (12) TMI 754 - CESTAT NEW DELHIImport of Wireless Access Points [WAP]/ MIMO Product - Availability of exemption from the whole of the customs duty under Serial No. 13 of the notification dated 01.03.2005, as amended by notification dated 11.07.2014 - Classification of imported goods - classifiable under Customs Tariff Item [CTI] 8517 62 90 or not - period from 11.07.2014 to 30.06.2017 - HELD THAT:- What needs to be remembered is that MIMO is a technology and cannot be treated as an independent product. If the intention was to exclude even products having only MIMO technology, then the word ‘products’ should have been used after MIMO as well as after LTE. It, therefore, follows that the scope of ‘products’ excluded by entry (iv) would be products which use both MIMO and LTE. Thus, the term ‘Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) Products’ means products which contain both MIMO and LTE. A Division Bench of the Tribunal in Ingram Micro India [2020 (11) TMI 9 - CESTAT CHENNAI] also confirmed the classification of identical product (i.e. WAP) under CTI 8517 62 90 and extended the benefit of the subsequent notification dated 30.07.2017. The Department has accepted the Order passed by the Tribunal. Therefore, once the benefit has been granted to Ingram Micro in the subsequent notification for an identical product, the benefit under the notification dated 01.03.2005, as amended on 11.07.2014 should also be extended to Redington. What also needs to be noted is that India is a signatory to the Information Technology Agreement [ITA] dated 13.12.1996 by the World Trade Organization. The ITA requires each participant to eliminate and bind customs duties at zero for all products specified in the Agreement. India signed the Agreement on 01.07.1997. Pursuant to ITA, India introduced the notification. At the time of introduction, all goods falling under CTH 8517 were exempted from payment of duties. In 2014, on specified telecommunication products that were not covered under the ITA, the Government imposed customs duties by notification dated 11.07.2014 - Imported WAP is a networking equipment working in LAN connecting Wi-fi enabled devices such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc. to a wired network. Thus also, imported WAP is entitled to the exemption from the whole of the customs duties under the ITA. Thus, WAP imported by the appellant works on technology and does not support LTE standard. Beetal Teletech was, therefore, justified in claiming exemption from the whole of the customs duty under Serial No. 13 (iv) of the notification. There is, therefore, no infirmity in the order dated 29.11.2019 passed by the Additional Director. Appeal dismissed.
|