Case nº Ruling No. AAR/20(Cus)/2005 in Application No. AAR/44(Cus)/32/2005 of Authority for Advance Rulings, November 24, 2005 (case Alcatel India Ltd. Vs Commissioner of Customs)
| Judge | For Respondents: A.K. Roy, Joint CDR CESTAT |
| President | Syed Shah Mohammed Quadri, J. (Chairman), Somnath Pal and B.A. Agrawal, Members |
| Resolution Date | November 24, 2005 |
Judgment:
(Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax)
Syed Shah Mohammed Quadri, J. (Chairman)
-
In this application under Section 28H of the Customs Act, 1962 (for short "the Act"), M/s. Alcatel India Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alcatel, France, proposes to import into India the latest technology equipment of Optical Networking/GSM equipment etc. To ascertain its customs duty liability in regard to the hardware and optical fibre cables for submarine telecommunications systems, it seeks advance ruling of the Authority on the following question:
"Whether 1640 Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexer Node to be imported into India, is classifiable under Heading No. 8517 5099 of the First Schedule of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975."
The Alcatel 1640 WM Telecommunication Equipment (1640 WM) (for short "the goods") is a hybrid of optical, electronic and mechanical systems that forms part of a telecommunication system for use in transmission of aggregate data. The goods are multi wavelength transmission system with Software reconfigurable Add and Drop functionality. It can transmit signals, one pair of fibre, up to 320 channels (160 channels for single fibre) that can support any type of asynchronous traffic with bit rate from 100 Mb/s to 2, 5 Gb/s and synchronous STM-16 and STM-64 traffics. The goods include standard transponders, optical adapters and concentrators. It is submitted that in accordance with Rule 1 of the General Rules for the Interpretation of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act 1975 (for short "the Rules") the goods are classifiable under Tariff heading 8517; in accordance with Rule 6, these goods will fall under sub-heading 8517 50 and that the appropriate tariff heading is 8517 50 99. It is added that the U.K. has classified the said goods under tariff heading 8517 50.
-
In his comments the designated Commissioner of Customs states as follows:
Comments: On the basis of description of goods given in Annexure II and product Application given in Technical documents, it appears that the party's contention that in accordance with Rule 1 of the General Rule of interpretation, these goods are classified under tariff heading 8517 Electrical apparatus for line telephony or line telegraphy, including line telephone sets with cordless handsets and telecommunication apparatus for carrier - current line systems or for digital line systems; videophones is correct. The product is an equipment meant for Telecommunication...
To continue reading
Request your trial