Ajay Sharma ORDER
Ajay Sharma, Member (J)
1. This Appeal has been filed from the order dated 16.3.2018 passed by the Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) JNCH, Nhava Sheva, Mumbai-II in Order-in-Appeal No. 231[Adjn(I)]/2018(JNCH)/Appeal-II by which the Commissioner (Appeals) disposed of the Appeal filed by the Appellant and reduced the penalty under Section 112(a) of the Customs Act, 1962 to Rs. 5 lacs. The issue for determination is whether the Appellant, who is a CHA, is liable for penalty under Section 112(a) ibid.
2. The facts of the Appeal in brief are as follows. The Appellant is the partner of M/s. P.N. Shipping -CHA. One Mukhtar Shaikh of M/s. Fast Forward Logistics Solutions approached them and started giving them business of import & export clearance. In past also during the period December, 2014 to April, 2015 the said Mukhtar Shaikh gave work to the appellants regarding 6 import consignments of different importers (IEC holders) and the appellant cleared them from JNCH. The said Mukhtar Shaikh used to forward the invoice, packing list, Airway Bill & certificate of origin by email to the Appellant and on the basis of that information, the appellant used to prepare the final check list and mail it to Mukhtar Shaikh for his approval and on getting his approval, he used to upload this check list in the Custom EDI system. Therefore the only work the appellant used to do as CHA was to prepare the final check list and upload the same in the Customs EDI system through their login ID. The arrangement for assessment, examination and transportation of those consignments were directly looked after by Mukhtar Singh through his own sources.
3. In the same manner, the said Mukhtar Shaikh approached the Appellant regarding the consignments in question of one M/s. Ganesh Enterprises mentioning the consignment as Trolley Bags and the appellants agreed to only upload the checklist, Bills of Entry and did not attend to assessment and examination work for this Bills of Entry. The appellant, on the basis of the documents for this consignment provided by Mukhtar Shaikh, uploaded the documents in the customs EDI system through their login ID and prepared the checklist, filed Bill of Entry on 7.5.2015 around 16.00 hrs and informed the same to Mukhtar Shaikh. He was paid Rs. 10,000/- for this work, although in usual course this amount is charged by him for the entire clearance process of the consignment. On the same day at about 16.30 hrs the Appellant was informed by DRI that the consignment contained offending goods and needed to be examined. Upon examination it was found that apart from the declared goods, the said consignment contains 20445 boxes of cigarettes valued at Rs. 3.36 crores. The said consignment was seized under panchnama dated 7.5.2015. After investigation, a show cause notice dated 29.10.2015 was issued by DRI to 7 known persons including the Appellant viz., Omkar Rajender Kumar Keer, Kanaiya Hurbada, Rajan Hemraj Bhanushali, Dinesh Bhanushali, Mukhtar Shaikh, Jaideep Ramniklal Shah, Suresh Bhanushali and other unknown persons in connection with seizure of Omega Trolley Bags valued at Rs. 6,34,500/- and cigarettes valued at Rs. 3,36,62,160/- (LMV); totally valued at Rs. 3,42,96,660/- (LMV) imported in the name of M/s. Ganesh Enterprises. So far as the appellant is concerned, the said show cause notice was for the purpose of imposition of penalty under Section