Order Date – 09 August 2023

Parties: M/s. Aureole Inspecs India Pvt. Ltd. Vs Principal Commissioner, Customs – New Delhi

Key Pointers –

• The Appellant, M/s. Aureole Inspecs India Pvt. Ltd., imported snow goggles which it supplied to the Indian Army as per its contract dated 31 August 2018.
• The appellant filed Bill of Entry dated 21.9.2019 to clear the snow goggles classifying them under Customs Tariff Heading 90049090 which attracts basic customs duty at the rate of 10%.
• Revenue felt that they were classifiable under CTH 90041000 attracting BCD of 20%. The Principal Commissioner of Customs issued a Show Cause Notice5 dated 28.2.2020
• The issue involved here is whether the snow goggles are classifiable under CTH 90041000 or under Customs Tariff Heading 90049090?
• The Tribunal observed that the goods are meant for protection of eyes in snowy region and not protection of eyes from sunlight which is the purpose of sun glasses as is common knowledge. Thus, the finding in the impugned order that the Snow Goggles are also sunglasses is not correct.
• Goods should be classified and assessed to duty as they are imported and not based on what they will become if some changes are made. Therefore, the Principal Commissioner has clearly erred in classifying the imported goods on the basis of what they can become if some changes are made.
• The Tribunal found after examining the contract of the appellant with the Army (to meet which these were imported), that they are not sunglasses but are Snow Goggles. Therefore, the disputed goods cannot fall under 90041000 (sun glasses) and must fall under 900490 ‘Other’.
• This heading covers three types of goods viz., passive night vision goggles, prismatic eye glasses for reading and others. The imported goods do not fall under either of these categories. Hence, they were correctly classified by the importer under the residual CTH 90049090 as others.
• The imported goods do not become liable to confiscation under section 111(m) on the ground that the importer classified the goods under a CTH different from the opinion of the officer. As classification is a matter of opinion and the importer’s goods cannot be confiscated nor can he be penalized for his opinion.
• Further, wrong classification or wrong claim of an exemption notification, in the Bill of Entry even if they are found to be completely incorrect, do not attract section 111(m) or the consequential penalty under section 112.