K.L. Rekhi, Member (T)

1. Under a Dealer Selling Agreement with M/s. General Motors Scotland Limited, the appellants imported spare parts of TEREX Earth Moving Machinery. The lower authorities have enhanced their import invoice prices by 18% on the ground that other importers of TEREX Spare Parts in India had to pay that much amount extra by way of buying commission to the appellants. The appellants are aggrieved by the lower orders and pray that their invoice prices should be accepted as assessable value under Section 14(1)(a) of the Customs Act, 1962.

2. During the hearing before us, the appellants pressed for the following arguments :

(1) The Agreement made it clear that the appellants were a nonexclusive dealer in the area comprising Union of India including the States of Sikkim and Bhutan and M/s. General Motors reserved the right to sell TEREX Spare Parts to anybody else also in India. They cited the instance of M/s. Hindustan, Motors who were importing TEREX parts directly from M/s. General Motors at the same invoice price.

(2) The appellants were not an agent or local representative of General Motors. They purchased TEREX Spare Parts in the capacity of a principal on outri