30+ years of combined expertise in complex Indian taxation and compliance.
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30+ years of combined expertise in complex Indian taxation and compliance.
Customs Show Cause Notices (SCNs) routinely demand duty differentials plus 100% penalties, threatening corporate liquidity. With 42 years of technical customs adjudication experience, we dismantle departmental allegations and engineer massive demand reductions.
Led by Kuppusami: Former senior executive with over four decades handling complex valuation, classification, and DRI disputes.
Customs law is deliberately complex. Investigating agencies exploit this ambiguity, invoking "suppression of facts" to extend limitation periods and levy maximum penalties on entirely legitimate business transactions.
Importing from a related foreign parent inherently triggers SVB investigations. Failure to technically defend transfer pricing documentation results in "loading" of invoice values, forcing you to pay higher duties permanently.
Risk: Permanent 5-15% increase in landed costs.
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) probes begin with aggressive unannounced searches and seizure of records. Statements recorded under Section 108 without legal counsel invariably become the foundation for massive tax demands.
Risk: 100% Penalties, asset seizure, and prosecution.
Post-clearance audits identifying that your broker used a 7.5% duty code instead of the department's preferred 15% code. They invoke the extended period of limitation, demanding 5 years of differential duty instantly.
Risk: Crores in retrospective tax liabilities.
Misdeclaration of quantity, value, or description can lead to the actual physical confiscation of your cargo at the port, throttling your supply chain and requiring heavy redemption fines to release the goods.
Risk: Production halts and loss of inventory.
Drafting highly technical replies to Show Cause Notices (SCNs). We dismantle departmental allegations using statutory interpretation, General Rules of Interpretation (GRIs), and establishing the absence of "mens rea" (intent to evade) to kill the 100% penalty provisions.
If the initial Adjudicating Authority rules against the importer, we escalate the matter to the Commissioner (Appeals) and the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT). We secure stay orders against coercive duty recovery during the pendency of the appeal.
When fighting is mathematically futile, we utilize the fast-track Settlement Commission route. We negotiate "full and true disclosures" to secure complete immunity from prosecution and obtain catastrophic penalty waivers (often reducing penalties to near zero).
"When the DRI raid concluded, we thought the ₹3.5 Crore demand (duty + penalty) would shatter our quarterly cash flow. Mr. Kuppusami didn't panic. He systematically dissected their legal arguments, proved our royalty was purely domestic, and negotiated the total multi-year liability down to just 28 Lakhs."
— Managing Director, Auto Component JV
Understanding SVB loading, DRI powers, and Settlement Commission physics.
SVB investigations are automatically triggered when you import goods from an overseas "related party" (e.g., your foreign parent company, a subsidiary, or a joint venture partner).
The Department's Suspicion:
Customs presumes that because the buyer and seller are related, the declared import price is artificially lowered to evade Indian Basic Customs Duty.
During the investigation (which can take 1-3 years), all your related-party imports are assessed Provisionally. You are often forced to pay Extra Duty Deposits (EDD) of 1% to 5% on every single shipment until the final SVB Order is issued.
Yes. A routine audit is an administrative check; a DRI investigation is an adversarial intelligence operation.
Never answer a DRI summons without senior legal counsel prepping your statements and managing the documentary submissions.
The Settlement Commission is a strategic off-ramp for cases where the department's core evidence is legally unassailable and litigation failure is certain.
By voluntarily approaching the Commission and making a "full and true disclosure" of the duty liability, you gain massive protections:
The first 48 hours dictate the final outcome. Do not submit any written responses to Customs or DRI without senior technical representation.