AUTHORITY FOR ADVANCE RULINGS

              (CENTRAL EXCISE, CUSTOMS & SERVICE TAX)

NEW DELHI

PRESENT
 

       Thursday, the twenty fourth November Two Thousand Five

Ruling Nos. AAR/26(Cus)/2005
In
 Application No.AAR/44(Cus)/40/2005

R U L I N G

(Hon'ble Mr. Justice Syed Shah Mohammed Quadri)

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 the Alcatel Light Manager-1626 proposed to be imported into India, is classifiable under Heading No. 8517 5099 of the First Schedule of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975."   

            The Alcatel 1626 Light manager (for short the "goods") is a hybrid of optical, electronic and mechanical system that forms part of a telecommunication system for use in transmission of aggregate data.  The goods are telecommunications equipment, which offer a transmission system providing very high bandwidth capacity through Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology.  The system can provide up to 96x10 Gbit/s operating channels with a 0 to 100% add/drop capability in the OADM's (Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers), which enable selective access to the needed channels and non-regenerative pass-through for the others.  The goods include: (a) the Mux/Demux architecture; (b) the 10 Gbit/s transponders and concentrators; (c) the booster and the pre-amplifier and manage the integrity, quality, receipt and transmission of telecommunication aggregate data within the telecommunication system and are capable of providing transmission in a terrestrial environment across all the distances classes.  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 said 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. and Australia have classified the goods under tariff heading      8517 50. 

2.         In his comments the designated Commissioner of Customs states as follows:

"Comments: On the basis of description of goods given in annexure II and General characteristics 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 system or for digital line system; videophones: is correct. 

Conclusion: In view of above, proposed classification of item under tariff heading 8517 5099 may be accepted."

3.      It is evident that the proposed classification by the applicant is accepted by the Commissioner of Customs.  

4.      Tariff heading 8517 , the relevant sub-heading and the tariff items read as follows:

TARIFF HEADING 8517

Heading 8517 deals with electrical apparatus for line telephony or line telegraphy including line telephone sets with cordless hands-sets and telecommunication apparatus for carrier-current line systems or for digital line systems.

SUB-HEADING AND TARIFF ITEMS

      On a  combined reading of Rules 1 and 6 of the  Rules and the terms of the heading, sub-heading and tariff items, having regard to the description of the goods, specified above,  we rule that Alcatel Light Manager-1626 is classifiable under tariff item    8517 50 99.

Pronounced in the open Court on this 24th day of November, 2005.