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2013 (10) TMI 409 - AT - CustomsImport of second hand vessel - Exemption from duty - supply vessel or multipurpose support vessel - classification under heading 8905 or 8901 - Held that:- vessel is designed to carry cargo and persons, is self-propelled and has navigational capability. From the details of the speed parameters, it can be seen that the vessel is not a stationary vessel even when delivering service. These parameters are very crucial for classification of the impugned vessels. The Revenue’s reasons for classification under CTH 8905 is mainly based on two documents, namely, the permission given by the Indian Navy and the contract entered into by the appellants with the ONGC. The Naval Security Clearance is given by the Indian Navy from the security point of view and it has nothing to do with the classification of the vessel. As regards the contract with the ONGC, the said contract stipulates the various services to be rendered to them by the service provider. In the contract, the technical specifications of Multi-purpose Support Vessel are enumerated - technical paper makes it abundantly clear that Offshore support vessels are nothing but supply vessels for the supply of cargo and personnel to offshore platforms with additional features of underwater diving and inspection, fire-fighting operations, etc. The vessels under importation have some of these additional features so that they can perform the various operations that are required and expected of offshore support vessels. The contract given by ONGC requires certain operations to be performed in addition to supply and transport of cargo and personnel. Nevertheless, these vessels remain supply vessels designed for transport of cargo and persons and therefore, they are rightly classifiable under CTH 8901 and we hold accordingly. Extended period of limitation - Held that:- The goods were examined by the Customs before assessment and all the type approval certificates given by the statutory authorities and the technical data relating to the vessels were made available to the customs authorities. The allegation of the customs is that the copies of the contract entered into with the ONGC were not made available. There is no statutory requirement for submission of contracts with ONGC to the customs authorities. The documents required to be submitted at the time of filing of the bill of entry are only invoices /purchase orders for the goods, product literature/catalogue applicable to the goods. In the case of vessels, the registration and class certificates are also required to ascertain the nature of the vessels. All these documents were submitted by the appellants at the time importation. How the vessels would be put to use or is there any contract for the future use of the imported goods are not relevant considerations for assessment of customs duty. Therefore, we hold that the entire demand is time barred and on that ground also the customs duty demands fail. Once the classification claimed by the appellants is upheld, the question of differential duty demand, confiscability of the goods, and imposition of penalty, etc. do not sustain and we accordingly set aside the same - Decided in favour of assessee.
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