Only claims existing on liquidation commencement date, filed within stipulated time, are admissible; post-liquidation assessments during moratorium invalid without approval, rejecting delayed additional claims.

ORDER

1. This Application has been filed by Shri Subhendu Mohanty, Assistant Commissioner, Paradeep Customs Division, against Sri Sanjay Gupta Liquidator of LANCO Babandh Power Limited, the Corporate Debtor, under Section 60(5) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and Rules 11 and 49 of the National Company Law Tribunal Rules, 2016, seeking the following prayers.

I. The Hon’ble Tribunal may be pleased to condone the delay of 2030 days in filing the claims before the Respondent Liquidator.

II. The Hon’ble Tribunal may be pleased to direct the Respondent Liquidator for Lanco Babandh Power Limited (Corporate Debtor) to verify and admit the claims of the present Applicant.

APPLICATION

2. The Applicant, Shri Subhendu Mohanty, Assistant Commissioner of the Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate, Bhubaneswar, under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, has submitted this application in his official capacity. It is further stated that the Government of India, through the Ministry of Finance, is the jurisdictional assessing authority for the Respondent company, Lanco Babandh Power Limited, which is presently under liquidation before the National Company Law Tribunal.

3. According to the Applicant, after lodging a claim of Rs. 3,46,43,38,610 before the Liquidator on 23.12.2019, the books and accounts of the Paradeep Customs Division were audited by officers of the Accountant General (Audit) Odisha during January 2025. It is stated that the audit titled “Performance Audit on Project Import’’ found that six manually filed and provisionally assessed Bills of Entry were never considered for finalization. The audit also noted that, upon examining forty-two finally assessed Bills of Entry, the assessable values in three of them were incorrectly determined under Final Assessment Order No. VIII-CUS-48(26) Proj. Cont. Regn/PDP/2011/3570-74 dated 10.05.2019.

4. Pursuant to the audit, all manually filed Bills of Entry of the Corporate Debtor for F.Y. 2011-12 and 2012-13 were taken up for final assessment. Final Assessment Order No. VIII-CUS-48(26) Proj. Cont. Regn/PDP/2011/Pt.-1/5185 dated 12.06.2025 was passed, creating a fresh Customs duty demand of Rs. 48,93,38,926. A subsequent corrigendum dated 11.06.2025 to the earlier Final Assessment Order dated 10.05.2019 corrected a typographical error in three Bills of Entry (Nos. 9682070, 9682072, 2429188), resulting in an additional demand of Rs. 6,95,77,809.

5. The Applicant states that the details of the additional demand of Customs duty against the Corporate Debtor have been provided as follows.

6. Accordingly, the total additional Customs duty claimed by the Applicant amounts to Rs. 55,89,16,735, which is sought to be recovered by the Customs Department as statutory dues from the Corporate Debtor.

7. The Applicant states that the claim was submitted to the Liquidator through Form B dated 16.06.2025 for the pending dues of the Department; however, the Liquidator rejected the application vide email dated 25.06.2025 by assigning the stated reason.

“As per Regulation 16 of the IBBI (Liquidation Process) Regulations, 2016, claims are required to be submitted as on the liquidation commencement date. It is settled that no claims arising post the liquidation commencement can be admitted. The Corrigendum and Assessment Orders in question are dated after 27.11.2019, and thus, any demand arising there