Section 28 Customs Act
5 articles
Missing Battery, Complete Vehicle: CESTAT Principal Bench Classifies a CKD Electric Motorcycle Kit as a Whole Vehicle but Denies the Concessional Kit Exemption
An importer of electric two-wheeler kits argued that a notice issued by an Assistant Commissioner was void, that self-assessed Bills of Entry were final, and that kits missing batteries and chargers still earned the concessional rate. The Tribunal rejected each point: classification follows essential character, but the exemption demands every necessary component.
14 min readInterest Runs From Determination, Not From the Original Assessment: Delhi High Court on Customs Interest After Redemption of Confiscated Goods
After seven years of pending adjudication, the Customs EDI System showed interest running from May 2015. A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court holds that interest cannot be computed for a period during which the liability had itself not been determined, and directs recomputation from 28 February 2023.
13 min readVoluntary Deposit, Not a Time-Barred Demand: Delhi High Court Upholds a Customs Settlement Commission's Appropriation of Duty Beyond the Section 28 Limitation Period
An importer of confectionery items voluntarily deposited over ₹85 lakh during a DRI investigation into under-invoicing, and its proprietor admitted the full differential duty liability and asked that the deposit be adjusted against it. When the Settlement Commission later appropriated part of that deposit towards duty for a period beyond the Customs Act's five-year extended limitation period, the importer cried foul. The Delhi High Court dismissed the challenge, holding that Section 28 bars the Revenue's power to raise a fresh demand after the limitation period, but does not bar the appropriation of an amount the importer had already, voluntarily and without qualification, admitted was owed and asked to have adjusted.
12 min readNo Duty, No Section 28 Jurisdiction: CESTAT Chennai's Toyota Kirloskar Ruling on Sensor Classification and the Limits of Customs Reassessment
A CESTAT Chennai final order on customs classification of automotive sensors doubles as a ruling on the outer limits of Section 28 of the Customs Act — holding that a completed, nil-duty self-assessment cannot be reopened under Section 28 at all, and that no interest attaches to differential IGST for periods before the Customs Tariff Act's borrowing provision was amended to include interest.
13 min readA Claim Never Filed Is a Claim Extinguished: Delhi High Court Quashes a Customs Duty Demand the Department Never Placed Before the Resolution Professional
The goods were imported in 2023, the insolvency process ran its course in 2024 and 2025, and the customs show-cause notice arrived only after the resolution plan had already been approved. The Delhi High Court held that a customs demand for duty, interest and penalty on a pre-CIRP import cannot outlive a resolution plan the department never bothered to file a claim in — however live the underlying adjudication otherwise remained.
14 min read