CUSTOMS, EXCISE AND SERVICE TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL MUMBAI WEST ZONAL BENCH CUSTOMS APPEAL NO: 86098 OF 2025 [Arising out of Order-in-Appeal No: 427(Import) Noting)/2023(JNCH)/Appeals dated 26^th April 2023 passed by the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals), Mumbai – II.]

B K Rekhatex (HK) Ltd Unit 1213-14, 12/F, Peninsula Centre, 67 Mody Road Tsim Sha Tsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR … Appellant versus Commissioner of Customs (Import)

Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House, Nhava Sheva Tal: Uran, Dist: Raigad - 400707 …Respondent APPEARANCE:

Shri Mihir Mehta, Advocate for the appellant Shri Ram Kumar, Deputy Commissioner (AR) for the respondent CORAM:

HON’BLE MR C J MATHEW, MEMBER (TECHNICAL) HON’BLE MR AJAY SHARMA, MEMBER (JUDICIAL)

FINAL ORDER NO: 85891/2025 DATE OF HEARING: 29/04/2025 DATE OF DECISION: 06/06/2025 PER: C J MATHEW About two thousand years ago, at Golgotha, a man had his life publicly snuffed out with two petty thieves on either side. In those deaths, an Empire had not only notched up a victory but justified its very existence as protector of one its peoples. Secular history has it that Jesus died on the cross that Friday afternoon and Christian hagiography has it that Dismas the Penitent and Gestas the Recalcitrant were to his right and left. No matter that that very Empire was to expand even more over the next three centuries under the sign of the Cross and no matter that the Empire - both in the East and West - was to cease to exist by the end of the millennium. No matter that the Empire is no more even as the religion of that Empire named for the man who died that day lives on. What mattered was not who was made to pay the price but that the State had to extract the price. It is on the bedrock of similar foundational engagement of the State, not with people on this occasion but with commodities, that M/s BK Rekhatex (HK) Ltd has arraigned Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House, Nhava Sheva, as respondent before us, over the decision, [order-in-appeal no. 427(Import) Noting)/2023(JNCH)/Appeals dated 26th April 2023] of Commissioner of Customs (Appeals), Mumbai – II.

2. And it is not as if the impugned order was not in favour of the appellant; it was and, yet, here they are. What ‘copper rods’, the goods impugned in the proceedings leading to the appeal, and the appellant, a limited company registered in Hong Kong – a special territory of the Peoples Republic of China – and a seller, finding themselves locked in dispute within the frame of Customs Act, 1962, a tax legislation of the

twentieth century, have aught to do with a long gone assertion of might by an Establishment also long gone may mystify. Everything, it would appear, for a chapter of accidents engineered by the Establishment – or one of peripheral significance to it – had spawned this dispute.

3. The appellant, intending to source 200.58 metric tons of ‘copper wire rod 8 mm electrolytic tough pitch’ from M/s Union Copper Rod LLC, had their bank open letter of credit (L/c) in favour of the latter as beneficiary against four pro forma invoices of 5^th November 2019 for US$ 310,581 raised on them by the seller with payment to be made in 120 days of issuance of documents. The supplier dispatched the four shipments to India against bill of lading no. AGNJEANSA00465/20.11.2019, bill of lading no.. ASCOKHLNSA1900054/01.12.2019, bill of lading no. ASCOKHLNSA1900063 / 01.12.2019, and bill of lading no. MSLJEANSA2521 / 03.12.2019 issued from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with ‘self’ as consignee and M/s Shine Metal Industries as ‘notify party’ therein. M/s Shine Metal Industries filed bills of entry no. 5862748/28.11.2019, 5987411/07.12.2019, 6005868/09.12.2009 and 6021988/10.12.2019 in the system, [Indian Customs EDI System (ICES)], with corresponding invoices raised on, and packing lists issued to, them by the appellant, on the understanding that, for taking delivery after clearance from customs, the original documents would be retired fo