Supreme Court Stays ₹14.91 Crore Customs Duty Recovery Against HP India, Issues Notice
The Supreme Court has stayed recovery pursuant to a Rs.14.91 crore customs demand against HP India Sales Pvt. Ltd. and issued notice in its appeal against a November 4, 2025 order of the Customs, Excise, and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT).
HP India's appeal challenges the CESTAT Mumbai order, which upheld the classification of its imported “HP Latex printers” as inkjet printing machines instead of inkjet printers, leading to the duty demand along with interest and penalty under the Customs Act.
A Bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Prasanna B. Varale while staying the recovery proceedings, observed, “There shall be a stay of recovery pursuant to the impugned judgment and final order dated 04.11.2025 till the next date of hearing.”
The dispute relates to imports made between October 2016 and March 2021, involving printers valued at over Rs. 149 crore. The customs authorities had reclassified the goods under a different tariff entry, holding them liable for an additional duty of Rs. 14.91 crore, besides interest and an equivalent penalty, and also imposed ra redemptionfine.
HP India had contended that the printers were capable of connecting to automatic data processing systems and should fall under the more favourable tariff entry. However, the appellate tribunal rejected this contention, holding that the machines were self contained printing systems not dependent on external data processing units.
Aggrieved by the classification and consequent demand, HP India has now approached the top court, which has granted interim protection by staying recovery pending further consideration of the matter.
For Appellant: Advocates V Lakshmikumaran, Nitum Jain, L Badri Narayanan, Neha Choudhary, Bharath Menon, Swastik Mishra, Medha Sinha, Atrey Gc, Charanya Lakshmikumaran, AOR