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2020 (2) TMI 195 - AT - CustomsImposition of penalty on sales agent of foreign supplier u/s 112(a) and/ or 112(b) of the Customs Act, 1962 - omission/ commission committed by sales agent of foreign supplier or not who has acted on the direction of Principal - HELD THAT:- The matter in the case of Respondent 1 has been settled by the order of Settlement Commission as has been noted by the Commissioner in the impugned order. Even the review order and appeal filed do not urge anything in respect of the dropping of the proceedings against them in view of immunity granted by the Settlement Commission, we do not find any merits in the appeal and dismiss the same as infructuous. The fact that Shri Santosh Nair (sales agent) has issued the Proforma invoice as directed by Vice President (Sales) of the supplier, has not been controverted by the revenue in the appeal filed. Also it is fact on record that the import documents i.e. Bill of Entry was filed on the basis of Commercial Invoice 328 32686 dated 28.12.1998 issued by the supplier M/s Signtech USA. Since the Proforma issued by the Shri Santosh Nair was not even the basis for filing the import documents the relevance of the same in the current proceedings for imposition of penalty is not understood. In fact said Proforma invoice was never the part of the import documentation, though it was part of negotiation documents between the foreign supplier and the Importer in India. Thus, Shri Santosh Nair was acting in course of normal business as sales agent of foreign supplier and had offered the sale price of the machine as directed by the foreign supplier to the Indian importer. There is nothing on record to establish that he had abetted in the evasion of duty by mis-declaring the value, for purpose of imposition of penalty under section 112(a) and/ or 112(b) of the Customs Act, 1962. Appeal dismissed.
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