TMI Blog2005 (2) TMI 359X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e appellants and Smt. Shobha L. Chary, the learned JCDR appeared for the Revenue. 3. The learned Advocate urged the following points : (i) The Apex Court, in the case of Coromandal Fertilisers Ltd. v. Collector of Customs - 2000 (115) E.L.T. 7 (S.C.), has held that landing charges means 'the expenditure incurred by an importer for bringing goods on board ship to land'. In the instance cases, the ship stops at the anchorage point. The goods are first unloaded to a barge, later the barge comes to the jetty. Hence, the expenses incurred from the time of unloading the goods into the barge should be considered as part of landing charges, which are included in the 1% charged under Rule 9(2)(b) of Customs Valuation Rules. In view of this, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e learned JCDR argued on the following lines : The charges incurred by the importers are in the nature of transportation cost since they are incurred for transportation of the goods by barges from the anchorage to jetty. Relying on the Apex Court's decision in the case of Garden Silk Mills Ltd. v. UOI - 1999 (113) E.L.T. 358 (S.C.), it was urged that the place of importation in these cases is not the anchorage point but the jetty from where the goods are unloaded on the land mass of India. Therefore, the barge charges should be considered as cost of transportation to be included under Rule 9(2)(a) of the Customs Valuation Rules and not under Rule 9(2)(b) as contended by the appellants. In other words, the barge charges cannot be part of l ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ge charges should be considered as part of landing charges because the Supreme Court has defined Landing Charges as the charges incurred from the ship to land. It may also be construed that 'ship to land' may also mean 'barge to land' in cases where ships stop at the outer anchorage. The Tribunal has also consulted an authoritative commentary on Customs valuation by Saul Sharman and Henric Glass to arrive at their conclusion. However, in view of the Garden Silk case decision, we cannot hold that the outer anchorage point is the place of importation. In our view, it is very reasonable to assume that the barge charges are part of cost of transportation under Rule 9(2)(a). This entire issue has been considered in depth in Essar Oil case (cited ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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