The judicial magistrate, Jamnagar, M M Soni, yesterday refused bail for two senior officials of Essar Oil Ltd. The two officials _ finance director S Agarwal and P R Ashok, general manager, accounts, were taken into judicial custody on Thursday in Ahmedabad by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and brought to Jamnagar.
The company has moved the Sessions Court on the issue, Essar officials told Business Standard. The case is scheduled to come up for hearing today.
The department is claiming that the company had evaded customs duty on imports of equipment for its refinery project. Essar Oil had tendered a cheque of Rs 60 crore to the customs department as payment towards import duty leviable on the machinery imported by it.
While disputing that it has evaded customs duty, Essar Oil has contended that no additional amount is payable. The cheque payment made by the company was based on the customs duties prior to the presentation of the Union budget. The budget had hiked the import duty on refinery equipment by 5 per cent.
In its letter dated March 17 to the Assistant Commissioner of Jamnagar, Essar had acknowledged its liability to pay duty at the new rates along with interest, should a competent authority so decide. The cheque for Rs 60 crore was tendered about three days before the Union budget was presented in the Lok Sabha and the machinery was released from the bonded warehouse. However, the DRI has charged that the cheque was rejected for clearance by the bank as the company had a balance of only Rs 12 lakh against the Rs 60 crore needed. The company has denied that the cheque which it had issued for customs duty had bounced. The company said the payment was delayed on account of eight bank holidays during the period February 25 to March 17.
