G‑Card Holder’s Penalty Cut to ₹5,000 on Account of Meagre Salary: CESTAT New Delhi

CESTAT New Delhi held a customs broker’s salaried G-card holder liable for filing forged-document imports without KYC checks, but reduced his ₹1 lakh penalty to ₹5,000 given his ₹18,000 monthly salary.

The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), New Delhi, has upheld the liability of a customs broker’s G-card holder under Section 112(a)(i) of the Customs Act, 1962 for filing bills of entry on forged documents without verification. It nonetheless reduced his penalty from ₹1,00,000 to ₹5,000 in view of his financial condition [Sushil Gautam v. Principal Commissioner of Customs ICD-Import, Tughlakabad, New Delhi, 2026-juristway.com-3335-CESTAT(New Delhi)-Customs].

The Bench of Ajay Sharma, Member (Judicial), and Hemambika R. Priya, Member (Technical), heard the appeal; the order was written by Ms. Priya. The appellant, a salaried G-card holder of Ambe Freight Pvt. Ltd., filed six bills of entry for M/s Giga Export Services at the request of Mahesh Ramji Bhanushali, who supplied the import documents. The importer’s documents were found to be morphed or forged, and there was no unit at its declared address. The adjudication order dated 19 Dec 2023 held that the failure to verify documents, the address and KYC breached Regulation 10(n) of the Customs Broker Licensing Regulations, 2018.

The appellant argued that the Tribunal had set aside revocation of the broker’s licence, so his penalty should also go. The Tribunal found the argument persuasive but held it had to be tested on the facts. The record showed that he filed the documents, knew of a Customs alert but did not inform the F-card holder, and filed the bills of entry using his own ID and a separate dongle for the digital signature.

The Tribunal took note that the appellant was merely a G-card holder earning ₹18,000 a month, and that his wife was on dialysis, as the F-card holder had corroborated. It considered a penalty of ₹1,00,000 under Section 112(a)(i) to be on the higher side for a person on such a meagre salary.

The penalty was reduced to ₹5,000 and the appeal allowed to that extent.

2026-juristway.com-3335-CESTAT(New Delhi)-Customs