LAHORE: Customs Appellate Tribunal modified the order-in-original in seized non-duty paid Iranian ceramic tiles in an appeal filed by Zikria Arshad, a resident of Gujranwala against Director, Directorate General of Intelligence & Investigations-FBR Lahore and others.
Muhammad Sadiq, Member Technical bench-II heard the arguments and scrutinized the record presented by the parties and passed the judgment with remarks that confiscated goods should be released to the lawful owner on the payment of duties and taxes.
According to the details of the case, on the credible information, Superintendent I&I, after obtaining search warrants from judicial magistrate raided a godown of M/s Bilal Ceramics and found Iranian origin ceramics tiles. On demand, the owner of the godown failed to produce any legal documents regarding the lawful import of detained tiles and same were seized under Section 156(1) of Customs Act 1969.
After show cause notice, adjudication proceeding culminated and order-in-original passed with remarks that goods to be released to the owner on the payment of duties and taxes along 35 percent redemption fine @ 35 percent of the value of goods.
Not satisfied with the order, same is challenged before the Customs Appellate Tribunal on the grounds that owner of goods already paid liabilities in the imported tiles, the order-in-original passed in a mechanical fashion without following the law and same is liable to set aside.
On the other side, the respondent denied all allegations and submitted the para-wise comments before the tribunal.
After hearing arguments, Customs Appellate Tribunal modified the order and reduced the fine from 35 percent of value to only Rs 100,000.
