The Supreme Court recently upheld the decision of the Gujarat High Court to hold that the levy of export duty on goods supplied from the Domestic Tariff Area to the Special Economic Zone is not justified. The Apex Court, therefore, confirmed that Adani Power (the petitioners, who are the largest private thermal power producer in India) cannot be called upon to pay export duty on the movement of goods from the Domestic Tariff Area to Special Economic Zone units or developments.
The Two-Judge Bench comprising Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan observed that the High Court has rightly interpreted the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 and the SEZ Act, 2005 (which are Section 12 along with Sections 2(18) and 2(27) of the Customs Act, in juxtaposition with Sections 2(i), 2(m) and 2(za) as well as Section 51 of the Special Economic Zones Act). Therefore, the Bench refused to interfere with the impugned judgments.
The Bench explained that Section 12 of the Customs Act is the charging Section, whereas, under Section 26 of the SEZ Act, power is reserved to grant an exemption or a concession if, under the provisions of the Customs Act, a duty is leviable as per the charging Sections.
Briefly, the dispute pertained to the findings of the Gujarat High Court, whereby it was held that the levy of export duty on goods supplied from the Domestic Tariff Area to the Special Economic Zone is not justified, and the same came to be challenged by the Customs Department.
Appearances:
For the Appellant/ Revenue: N Venkataraman, A.S.G., Nisha Bagchi, Sr. Adv., Swarupma Chaturvedi, Sr. Adv., Raghvendra S Srivatsa, Adv., Ishaan Sharma, Adv., Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR, Shashank Bajpai, Adv.
For the Respondent/ Taxpayer: Vikram S. Nankani, Sr. Adv., Kumar Visalaksh, Adv., Udit Jain, Adv., Pranav Bansal, Adv., Praveen Kumar, AOR, Shamik Shirishbhai Sanjanwala, AOR, Aditya Tripathi, Adv., Aarushi Gupta, Adv., Ks Naveen Kumar, Adv., S Sukumaran, Adv., Anand Sukumar, AOR, Bhupesh Pathak, Adv., Bhupesh Kumar, Adv., Ruche Anand, Adv., Abhishek Vikas, AOR, R. Parthasarathy, AOR, Chirag M. Shroff, AOR, Sahil Monga, AOR, Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR, Charanya Lakshmikumaran, AOR, Neha Choudhary, Adv., Umang Motiyani, Adv., Ayush Agarwal, Adv., Nitum Jain, Adv., Swastik Mishra, Adv., Medha Sinha, Adv., A. Lakshminarayanan, AOR, Niranjan, J.V., Adv., M Laxmi Mahendraa, Adv., M Munusamy, Adv., Pinaki Misra, Sr. Adv., Ruby Singh Ahuja, Adv., Dhruv Dewan, Adv., Akanksha Thapa, Adv., Megha Dugar, Adv., Shruti Pandey, Adv., Tribhuvan N Singh, Adv., Sudarsh Menon, AOR, Udbhav Singh, Adv., Nimisha Menon, Adv.
