TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2008 (1) TMI 204
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....der Notification C.N 21/02 for the basic customs duty and serial no. 27 of Notification No. 6/06 Central Excise for basic Excise duty. After seeking certain clarification from the appellants, the departmental officers were of the opinion that the software imported is packaged software and therefore they would not be liable for the exemption in respect of the countervailing duty (equal to Central Excise duty). According to the appellant, the software imported is customized software which is entitled for the benefit of the Notification 6/06 Central Excise. The Lower Authority passed an appealable order holding that the software is packaged/canned software and denied the benefit of Notification 6/06. The benefit of Notification would be availa....
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.... that the particular parameter is restored to the desirable level. This is basic to all automatic control systems. Due to rapid strides in Information Technology, computers are used in automatic control systems. The foreign supplier manufactures DCS comprising of both hardware and software. The appellant undertakes supply of DCS to various industries in India. According to the appellant, the requirement of DCS configuration for each customer is unique which is different from the configuration meant for another customer. In other words, as the hardware and software supplied to each customer are customized, the same cannot be used by a variety of users. The appellants have stated that the software imported by them for use of a particular cust....
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....ments. This application software is developed, based on an understanding of process to command the control system. (g) The final designed output of the Yokogawa software/hardware combination can only be used for the client it was designed for every installation is customized and therefore are unique. 6. However, the lower authority has given the following findings to hold that the imported software is only packaged/canned software. (a) The software imported by the appellant is basic application software grouped under various headings depending upon its functions. (b) The software is capable of being used by variety of users after loading into Yokogawa machines and further modifications at the site. (c) The software has been given speci....
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....r the purposes of this entry, "packaged software or canned software" means software developed to meet the needs of variety of users, and which is intended for sale or capable of being sold, off the shelf. 8. The above entry explains both customized software and packaged software or canned software. If the software is customized then there is no countervailing duty. To decide the issue, we have to go strictly by the Notification without getting lost in technicalities. The question to be asked is whether in the form in which software has been imported, it can be considered as developed for a specific user or client. Both lower authorities have elaborately discussed that the appellant is actually importing certain standard software pack....