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2022 (2) TMI 745 - AT - CustomsRejection of conversion of free shipping bills to advance authorization shipping bills - Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 - HELD THAT:- When the statute does not prescribe any time limit for filing an application for conversion of a shipping bill, the department cannot rely upon a circular to frustrate the provisions contained in the statute. When there is a conflict, the statute will definitely prevail over the Board circular. The issue whether the time limit prescribed as per the Board circular will apply was considered by this Tribunal in the case of Autotech Industries (India) Pvt. Ltd. [2021 (11) TMI 518 - CESTAT CHENNAI] and held that time limit of three months prescribed in the above Board circular cannot be applied to reject the request of conversion / amendment of shipping bills. The Tribunal in the case of Contemporary Leather Pvt. Ltd. Vs. CC, Chennai [2021 (12) TMI 293 - CESTAT CHENNAI] followed the decision of the Hon'ble jurisdictional High Court to hold that the Board circular cannot be pressed into application to deny the request for conversion of shipping bills. The second ground for rejecting the request for conversion of free shipping bills is that the goods exported have not been subjected to physical examination. As can be seen from Section 149, which has been noticed above, there is no requirement in the said section that the amendment can be allowed only if the goods have been subjected to physical examination before export - On perusal of the impugned shipping bills, it is seen that the appellants have clearly stated in the shipping bills that the goods are exported under advance authorization scheme. On one shipping bill, there is a mistake in noting the license number of the advance authorization. In both the shipping bills, the scheme code was wrongly mentioned though they have stated that the goods are exported under advance authorization. The code has been noted as “00” instead of “01”. Section 149 is a provision which permits the importer / exporter to request for amendment of documents for the mistakes that may have happened while filing the documents. When an application for amendment is received, if it is very much clear from the documents that the mistake was only an inadvertent mistake and there is no attempt of fraud or mis-statement to evade duty, the request for conversion ought to be allowed - The Tribunal in the case of Autotech Industries (India) Pvt. Ltd. had observed that the amendment is only a procedural issue. In the present case, the documents itself establish that these were inadvertent mistakes. The rejection of request for conversion of free shipping bills to advance authorization scheme shipping bills are not justified. The impugned order is set aside - Appeal allowed - decided in favor of appellant.
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