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2016 (9) TMI 834 - AT - CustomsRejection of refund claim - assessment - declared price - valuation - import of 24 consignments of Gambler - Duty Free Replenishment Certificate - Foreign Trade Policy - exemption of basic customs duty - lack of jurisdiction - Assistant Commissioner of Customs - alternative remedy of filing an appeal - section 128 of Customs Act, 1962 - section 27 of Customs Act, 1962 - rejection of declared value - rule 10A of Customs Valuation (Determination of Price of Imported Goods) Rules, 1988 - whether the Commissioner (Appeals) was within jurisdiction to reject the enhancement of the declared value? - Held that: - the enhancement of assessable value by the assessing officer was without authority. That lacuna cannot be rectified by mere access to appellate remedies through a ‘bill of entry’ as a cause of action. For the purposes of section 128 of Customs Act, 1962, however, ‘assessment’ and ‘adjudication’, though different, are orders or decisions. Whether the first appellate authority was correct in restoring the refund claim to the jurisdictional competence of the original authority? - Held that: - on the day of rejection of the refund claim, the original authority was not under instructions to disregard refund claims that were submitted without an appellate order setting aside the assessment. The original authority determined ineligibility for the refund claim without any recorded or acceptable rationale. The first appellate authority has, in accordance with the law as it then prevailed, set aside the rejection by the lower authority and restored the refund claim. The first appellate authority has erased the impediment by resolving the assessment dispute which was well within its jurisdiction to do so. That jurisdiction, even if deemed to have been exercised in the latest bill of entry, settles the principle that declared value could not have been rejected for assessment making it applicable to all assessments that preceded it - restoration of refund claim upheld - appeal dismissed - decided against Revenue.
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