Law: Customs Act, 1969

Section: 81

(a) Customs Act (IV of 1969)--Ss. 81 & 179(3)(5)---Establishment of Office of Federal Tax Ombudsman Ordinance (XXXV of 2000)---Provisional assessment of duty---Limitation---Goods were cleared under S.81 of the Customs Act, 1969 and finalization of assessment within stipulated period was not completed and communicated by the Department---Declaration made in the Goods Declaration attained finality and there was no justification or legal validity for deciding the classification and higher assessment on a date long after the expiry of the period---Under S.179(5) of the Customs Act, 1969, the time-limit for adjudication extended up to 31-12-2006 had expired and the Adjudicating Officer had no power to pass the adjudication order under subsection (3) or (5) of S.179 of the Customs Act, 1969---Validity---Assessment of goods released provisionally under S.81 of the Customs Act, 1969 in January, 2003 was not finalized within one year of the date of provisional assessment---Instead a show-cause notice was issued in May, 2003 without lawful authority---Recovery notice was sent arbitrarily demanding payment---Adjudication order was passed on 11-8-2008 after lapse of five years in violation of time limitation prescribed under S.179(3)(5) of the Customs Act, 1969---Adjudication order was not legally sustainable and the duty and taxes adjudged in adjudication order too were not legally tenable---Federal Tax Ombudsman recommended that Federal Board of Revenue should direct the Collector of Customs to set aside the order-in-original under S.195 of the Customs Act, 1969, quash recovery notice and finalize assessment on the basis of declarations made on the GD; to conduct an investigation of failure to finalize the assessment of goods provisionally released under S.81 of the Customs Act, 1969 within the stipulated period and the reasons for issuing an illegal show-cause notice under S.32(3) of the Customs Act, 1969 for a consignment provisionally released under S.81 of the Customs Act, 1969 be ascertained; to conduct four hearings in 2003 and 2004 but keeping the case undecided for about five years; to identify the officials responsible for the maladministration established…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492