Chas E Ramson loses bid in multimillion-dollar appeal

One of the country’s leading distributing company, Chas E Ramson, which had wrongly classified one of its import products resulting in a loss of $22.5 million in revenue, plus interest to the Jamaica Customs Agency, has lost its bid to have the multimillion-dollar bill dismissed.

The Supreme Court in a judgment last month threw out an appeal brought by Chas E Ramson that was seeking to have the court set aside a decision confirmed by the Revenue Appeals Division (RAD) for it to pay the multimillion-dollar additional duties to the agency.

Chase E Ramson was initially directed by the agency to pay over additional duties owed for shipments of Elle and Vire whipping and cooking cream that was imported between January 2009 and December 2011.

MISCLASSIFIED IMPORTS

This was after the agency had audited the company for the mentioned period and found that it had misclassified the imported creams on its C87 import entry forms and had incorrectly applied 4.02 tariff codes, which applied to concentrated creams, and attracted duties at a rate of 30 and 20 per cent instead of the correct 4.01 tarrif code for non-concentrated cream, which charged duties at 75 per cent rate.

However, the company, which had objected to the additional assessment, took the matter to the then Taxpayer Appeals Department, now called the RAD, but the division, in its judgment handed down last September, confirmed the additional assessment.

Consequently, Chas E Ramson took the matter to the Supreme Court to appeal the RAD’s decision, asking for it to be set aside as well as the additional assessment. The company also sought a declaration from the court to say that the imported creams had been properly assessed under the tariff code that they used for Customs duty purposes.

The agency, on the other hand, requested that the appeal be refused and that RAD’s decision be permitted to stand.

Both parties also asked for cost to be awarded to them.

Chas E Ramson, in support of its appeal, relied on a letter and a brochure from the company as well as the expert opinion of Professor Noureddine Benkeblia, who indicated that in food science, powder, granules, or any solid form of any product is not a concentrated form, but a dry or dehydrated form.

Therefore, he further indicated that milk and cream, which are in powder, granules, or other solid forms are classified as “concentrated” for Customs purposes.

CONCENTRATED

However, the agency’s defence team argued that the position advanced by the professor was not the one that the tarrif had adopted. The team further submitted that “concentrated” within the meaning of tariff heading, specifically 04.02, meant that the cream products were subject to further processing, such as evaporation or condensation, with the intention of increasing their strength or intensity by reducing or removing their liquid components.

However, Puisne Judge Carole Barnaby, in her conclusion, noted that based on the appellant’s evidence, she was compelled to conclude that the imported creams are not “concentrated” within the meaning of Tariff Heading 04.02 and that they were, therefore, properly classified by the Customs Agency under Tariff Heading 04.01.

Attorneys-at-law Ransford Braham QC and Carrisa Mears represented the appellant while attorneys-at-law Hazel Edwards and Krystal Corbet represented the commissioner of Customs.

Braham when contacted declined to comment and efforts made to contact Chas E Ramson managing director Phillip Ramson were unsuccessful as he did not return messages left at his office.

Questions sent to the Jamaica Customs Agency were also not answered up to news time.