N. Santosh Hegde JUDGMENT
D.P. Wadhwa, J.
1. State Bank of India (SBI) is aggrieved by the order dated September 29, 1995 of the Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal (for short, the 'Tribunal') rejecting its claim for refund of custom duty amounting to Rs. 10,86,49,119/-. The claim for refund has been made under Section 27 of the Customs Act, 1962 and it is alleged that the excess amount of custom duty could not have been levied in view of the provisions of the Customs Valuation (Determination of Price of Imported Goods) Rules, 1988 "(for short, the 'Rules') framed thereunder and the Press Note dated March 17, 1992 of the Department of Electronics, Government of India.
2. SBI imported a consignment of Computer Software and Manuals from Kindle Software Ltd., Dublin, Ireland ('Kindle' for short) of the value of US $ 4,084,475.00 (equivalent to Rs. 10,75,70,267.25). SBI filed a Bill of Entry No. 5209 dated July 19, 1991 along with the invoice of Kindle bearing No. 910701 dated July 3, 1991 for the aforesaid amount and after paying custom duty of Rs. 12,04,78,699/- on July 25, 1991 cleared the goods for home consumption. On August, 7,1991 SBI filed an application before the Additional Collector of Customs, Bombay claiming refund of custom duty of Rs. 10,86,49,119/-. It said that it had since received a detailed invoice which gave the particulars of imported Software and Manuals as under:
3. SBI, therefore, said that though it had paid custom duty on the total value shown in the Bill of Entry, the basic cost of software which was to be installed at one site in Bombay was US $ 401,047 while the rest of the amount of US$ 3,683,428 was payable only as licence fees for its right to use the software for the bank country-wide. SBI, therefore, said that it was required to pay custom duty for the consignment of software on an amount of US $ 401,047 only which included the cost of Manuals, Diskettes and licence fee and not on the whole amount shown in the Bill of Entry. In support of its claim SBI referred to the relevant Rules, these being Rules 2, 3, 4, 9(1) (c) and 12 of the Rules and the Interpretative Note to Rule 9 (1)(c). On the strength of the interpretative Note to Rule 9(1)(c) the SBI said that charges for the right to reproduce the imported goods in the country of importation should not have added to the price actually paid or payable for the imported goods in determining the custom value. SBI, therefore, requested that assessment made in respect of the consignment imported by it be rectified and that the breakup of the invoice amount in respect of (1) the cost of the manuals and diskettes, sin........