Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

26. Briefly, the case of the importer before us was that imported items cannot perform any specific function unless the end-users have an appropriate programming software.

According to the importer, the input for the above items is digital signals captured by sensors. According to the importer, just because the imported items were to be used with measuring instruments, it cannot be said that such items are to be classified under Chapter 90. According to the importer, PXI controller, I.O. modules and signal converters are all varieties of ADP Machines. They all run on operating systems like linux, windows etc. According to the importer, no ADP Machine can capture an electrical signal such as temperature, voltage, pressure etc. on its own as a stand-alone item. According to the importer, an ADP Machine requires various types of interface boards/units which are required to be installed in it and connected to sensors so that temperature, voltage and pressure can be received by the interface boards/units and converted into digital signals and then sent to ADPM processing. Therefore, according to the importer, it is the sensor which measures the real world phenomena as ADPM cannot interface by itself directly with the sensors. Thus, assessee imports a variety of such interface boards/units which are then installed into ADPM. According to the importer, these boards/units meet the criteria mentioned in Chapter Note 5(B) as well as Explanatory Notes (I)(D)(4) & (5) which inter alia state that such boards/units when imported should be classified under CTH 8471 as units of ADPM. According to the importer, an ADPM when imported has only an operating software which cannot perform any specific function without application of software. For example, a PXI Controller is incapable of processing the digital data fed to its CPU unless a specific software is written for such processing. At the time of import no software is written or provided. It is the end-user who uses a programming language or an appropriate tool such as Lab View software to write a specific software for its own stand-alone instrument or application like thermostat, spectrum analyzer, oscilloscopes etc.. According to the importer, at the time of import, the assessee is not aware of what application the end-user may put the PXI controller to use. Moreover, a PXI controller is not dedicated to a single type of machine or operator. It is capable of being connected to multiple apparatuses simultaneously which apparatuses can be changed continuously. As such, the PXI controller is freely programmable as per the requirements of the user. This end-user developed software or programme is stored in the memory and is executed by PXI controller. It is according to the software and the data fed to the CPU that the PXI controller processes the data and provides the required processed output. According to the importer, as the PXI controller satisfies the requirement of free programmability, storing and processing of programmes, performance and arithmetical computation and execution of programmes, the PXI controller qualifies as ADP Machine in terms of Chapter Note 5(A) to Chapter 84 of Customs Tariff.