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2012 (8) TMI 136 - AT - CustomsEvading customs duty - revoking the CHA licence - Held that:- From the records of the case, it is seen that mis-declaration of the weight and consequently the value of the export consignments has been clearly established int his case as can be seen from the panchanama proceedings - Since the logistics support was provided by the CHA firm, they should have been aware of the full details of the consignments under export and the mis-declaration made with regard to the weight, number of pieces, FOB value of exports As the partner of the CHA firm and two of their employees have clearly admitted to aiding and abetting the fraudulent exports, there is nothing that needs to be proved in the instant case - The entire export transactions were a sham and everyone, the exporter, the CHA the logistics firm and the shipping agent colluded and connived with each other so as to defraud the exchequer as they had retracted their statements, the same was not done immediately or at the first available opportunity but only in reply to the show cause notice issued under the Customs Act - Thus more than 6 months had elapsed between the deposition of the statement and the retraction. It is a well settled legal position that such belated retraction has no sanctity in the eyes of law and has to be treated as pure afterthought - the case against the appellant is built on the statements recorded from their own. When the cargo was LCL, the CHA directed the shipping line to book it as FCL and also collected FCL charges form the exporter as a consideration for their help and support in committing the fraud. Further in his statement has admitted that he had not obtained copies of the transport document from the transporter/trucker who brought in the export goods for examination and stuffing. Therefore, violation of regulation 13(k) is also established - As it is not a case of minor infractions of the provisions of CHALR but a major active involvement in aiding and abetting fraudulent exports leading to substantial loss of revenue to the exchequer the maximum punishment prescribed in the CHALR is clearly attracted - aginst assessee.
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