Legal principle

For project imports under Heading 98.01, the contract must be registered before the goods are imported; the purchase order date does not matter. After 29.03.2025, Section 18A allows revision of a cleared Bill of Entry notwithstanding the proviso to Section 149.

Court decision

The petition was allowed in part. The rejection was set aside for the two Bills of Entry dated 13.08.2025 (Nos. 3866403 and 3152579), because those goods were imported after the contract was registered on 05.06.2025. Customs must consider revising those Bills of Entry under Section 18A, extend Heading 98.01 if otherwise permissible, and process the refund. For the other three consignments, imported before registration, the claim was rejected.

Facts

Vatech Wabag Limited was building a 400 MLD seawater desalination plant at Perur for the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board. For this project it imported fasteners and one filter cartridge under five Bills of Entry dated 30.10.2024, 08.02.2025, 13.08.2025, 19.03.2025 and 13.08.2025, and paid customs duty at 15%. It later asked customs to assess the goods under Heading 98.01 (the special project import heading) under the Project Import Regulations, 1986, and refund the extra duty. Customs rejected this on 02.06.2026 because the purchase orders had been placed before the project contract was registered with customs on 05.06.2025. The company filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court.

Key provisions

• Section 18A, Customs Act, 1962 — Voluntary revision of entry, post clearance