In Brief
The Supreme Court upheld a Customs Tribunal's decision to reject the Revenue's enhancement of assessable value for imported aluminum scrap. The Tribunal found that the Assessing Officer had arbitrarily rejected the declared transaction value without proper examination of required evidence or establishing that the declared price was not the sole consideration. Under Section 14 of the Customs Act, assessing authorities must normally accept the price actually paid, and can reject it only on specified grounds with cogent reasons. Since no such proper exercise was undertaken, the Court dismissed the Revenue's appeals and affirmed the restoration of the assessable value as originally declared in the Bills of Entry.
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