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1996 (3) TMI 134 - SC - CustomsInterest on warehoused goods - Held that:- The liability to pay interest arises only after the expiry of the period prescribed in the notice of demand. It has been held by the High Court that the present matter is not governed by Section 61(2), as it stood at the relevant time, but by Section 59(1) alone. Indeed, it is submitted that when the respondent applied for extension of time of warehousing under Section 61(2), the Government told it that the said provision had no application and hence, time cannot be extended thereunder. Once that is so, we must go by what Section 59(1) says. According to it, the duty became due on issuing the notice of demand. The notice prescribed fifteen days for payment. Interest is chargeable only thereafter as held by the High Court, which, in our opinion, is a reasonable way of understanding the provision. Thus no justification or legal basis for the appellants' plea that the interest must be paid taking the rate of the duty at ninety percent for the said entire period. As a matter of fact, the rate of duty on the said goods was not ninety percent throughout the period March 22, 1985 to September 9, 1988. It was varying. The High Court's direction, therefore, to take the actual rate in force from time to time is a reasonable one. We are, therefore, of the opinion that the judgment of the High Court does not call for any interference. Appeal dismissed of assessee.
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