Tribunal upholds Gemini’s palm oil misdeclaration, cuts fine to Rs 1 cr | Hyderabad News

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) has upheld a finding that Gemini Edibles and Fats India Ltd misdeclared 2,304 tonnes of imported palmolein as crude palm oil to avail concessional customs duty. However, it reduced the redemption fine from Rs 2 crore to Rs 1 crore and scrapped an additional Rs 35 lakh penalty.The dispute arose from 4,764 tonnes of cargo imported in Aug 2021 and cleared the following month. While customs initially sought differential duty of Rs 7 crore on the entire consignment, it later accepted that 2,460 tonnes qualified as crude palm oil and restricted the demand to Rs 3.3 crore.According to the department, tank-wise loading records, the vessel’s ullage report, emails and government laboratory tests showed that the disputed cargo was refined, bleached, and deodorised (RBD) palmolein bound for Kakinada.Gemini argued that the entire consignment was crude palm oil and contended that changes to exemption rules in 2020, inconsistent laboratory results and delayed testing weakened customs’ case.The tribunal rejected the company’s arguments, holding that contemporaneous records clearly established the presence of two distinct products and that Gemini failed to produce convincing evidence to the contrary. It also ruled that removal of certain testing parameters from the exemption notification did not extend concessional duty benefits to refined palmolein.While upholding confiscation, interest liability and the finding of misdeclaration, the tribunal directed authorities to verify whether the applicable basic customs duty rate was 32.5% or 37.5% before recalculating the differential duty. The penalty under Section 114A will be linked to the revised duty demand.The tribunal also ordered that any excess amount from Rs 3.4 crore deposited by the company during the investigation be refunded with applicable interest after recomputation.