Date: |
09-06-2015
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Notification No: |
Customs Circular No 18/2015
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Issuing Authority: |
Indian Customs
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Type: |
Circular
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File No: |
F.No. 450/145/2014- Cus IV |
Subject: |
Regarding Appointment of Common Adjudicating Authority
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Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Excise and Customs
New Delhi, Dated: 09.06.2015
Circular No. 18/2015- Customs
To
All Chief Commissioner of Customs / Customs (Preventive)
All Chief Commissioners of Customs and Central Excise
All Commissioners of Customs
All Commissioners of Customs and Central Excise
Sir / Madam,
Subject: Appointment of common adjudicating authority -regarding
Reference is invited to
Notification No 60/2015-Customs (N.T.), dated
04.06.2015 whereby the power to appoint common adjudicating authority in cases
investigated by DRI upto the level of Commissioner of Customs have been
delegated to Principal Director General of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence
in terms of section 152 of the Customs Act, 1962. This notification was issued
in the interest of expediting decision making with resultant benefits to both
trade and revenue in terms of faster settlement of outstanding disputes. These
appointments were done hitherto by the Central Board of Excise and Customs under
sections 4 and 5 of the Customs Act 1962.
- In the light of the aforementioned notification, all cases of
appointment of common adjudicating authority in respect of cases
investigated by DRI will be handled by Principal DG, DRI. In this regard,
the Board has prescribed the following guidelines for Principal DG, DRI:
- The following cases initiated by DRI shall be assigned to Additional
Director General (Adjudication), DRI:
(i) Cases involving duty of Rs.5 crores and above;
(ii) Group of cases on identical issues involving aggregate duty of Rs.5
crores or more;
(iii) Cases involving seizure value of Rs.5 crores or more;
(iv) Cases of over-valuation irrespective of value involved; and
(v) Existing DRI cases with erstwhile Commissioner (Adjudication).
- Cases other than at (a) above involving more than one Customs Commissionerate would be assigned to the jurisdictional Commissioner of
Customs on the basis of the maximum duty evaded;
- Cases other than at (a) above involving a single Customs Commissionerate
would be assigned to the jurisdictional Commissioner of Customs;
- Non-DRI cases pending with erstwhile Commissioner (Adjudication) would
be assigned to Additional Director General (Adjudication), DRI;
- Past DRI cases pending for adjudication with jurisdictional
Commissioners of Customs would continue with these officers;
- Remand cases would be decided by the original adjudicating authority.
- All other cases of appointment of common adjudicator i.e. other than the
cases mentioned in paragraph 2 above would continue to be dealt by the
Board. This would include cases made by Commissionerates or cases made by
DRI wherein the adjudicating officer is an officer below the level of
Additional Director General (Adjudication), DRI.
- Board has also decided that all the pending cases where common
adjudicating authorities have not been appointed so far or where the common
adjudicating authorities have been appointed but adjudications have not been
done should be disposed of expeditiously in terms of aforementioned
guidelines. However, while doing so in regard to the latter category of
cases, Principal DG, DRI will take into consideration the fact whether or
not personal hearings have taken place and the stage of passing the
adjudication order. This is to ensure that cases about to be finalized are
not reallocated to another adjudicating authority thereby defeating the
objective of expediting the finalization of disputes.
- Difficulty faced, if any, may be brought to the notice of the Board at an
early date.
F.No. 450/145/2014- Cus IV
Yours faithfully
(Pawan Khetan)
OSD (Customs IV)
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