Home Case Index All Cases Customs Customs + HC Customs - 2018 (6) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2018 (6) TMI 265 - HC - CustomsValidity of Notifications - Extension of ADD - extension of Anti-Dumping Duty for the one year pending the Sunset Review - extension of Anti-Dumping Duty for the five years pursuant to the Sunset Review determination - Whether with the initiation of Sunset Review before expiry of the five year levy, there is an automatic extension of Anti-Dumping Duty for the Sunset Review period? - Would a separate notification be required extending the levy of Anti-Dumping Duty before expiry of the original five year period? - Would a notification of levy of anti-dumping duty for another five years after the expiry of the Sunset-Review Period be valid? Held that:- The Government itself was desirable that the Sunset Review exercise should be completed before the expiry of the first five year levy and in any case, the extension of levy should be completed within one year after the first five years as required under the duty regime. It requires the Domestic Industry to file the Sunset Review petition before the expiry of the period for which the Anti-Dumping Duty is in existence. No such application is to be entertained by the Designated Authority if it is filed in less than 90 days of expiry of the levy. The reasons and the grounds for sympathetic consideration staked in the respondents’ affidavit cannot be a ground for extension of the time schedules, in the realm of international trade regime. The transparency that envisaged the statute must be respected. The Act, the Rules and the Implementing Agreement sanction a legal regime for protective measures but not for protectionism. The N/N. 17/2013 issued 60 days after the expiry of the levy of Anti-Dumping Duty under the first five year period, would be non-est because it sought to extend a levy which had lapsed on 04.05.2013. The second proviso to section 9A(5) of the Act is an enabling provision granting the Central Government the authority to continue Anti-Dumping Duty pending the outcome of the Sunset Review for a further period not exceeding one year - In the present case, the original levy came to an end on 04.05.2013. The levy had a limited life and unless fresh life was infused in it before its predetermined expiry date, it could not be deemed to have been extended. Infusion of fresh life into the levy for a period of one year requires a fresh notification, in addition to the notification for initiation of the Sunset Review. That not being so, in the present case the levy under impugned Notification is without authority, hence it has to be and is set aside. Likewise the second notification imposing Anti-Dumping Duty for a period of five years too cannot be sustained because it has to be issued within the period of first five years or in the extended one year period of Sunset Review in which the earlier existing duty has been extended. Rule 18(1) does not and cannot be read to lend any authority or power to the Central Government to issue Customs Notification No. 35/2014. It is illegal and, accordingly, set aside. The period of three months under Rule 18(1) can be read only in the case of original notification for Anti-Dumping Duty and not for the Sunset Review. Initiation Notification No. 15/1/2013 dated 30.04.2013, Final Finding dated 29.04.2013 and the Customs Notification Nos. 17/2013 and 35/2014 issued on 05.07.2013 and 24.07.2014 are set aside - Petition allowed.
|