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5. It was in the aforesaid backdrop that we had proceeded to hear submissions addressed by respective sides on merits. Before proceeding ahead and for the purposes of appreciating the context in which the present writ petition has reached this Court, we deem it appropriate to notice the following salient facts.

6. The petitioner is stated to be engaged in the business of import and trade in gold, gold articles and assorted gold jewellery. On 07 August 2009, the Republics of India and Korea entered into a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement2 which shall hereinafter and for the sake of brevity be referred to as the "Indo- Korean CEPA". The petitioner claimed exemption from payment of customs duties based on the exemption provisions as contained in the Indo-Korean CEPA. In extension of the aforesaid Agreement between the Republics of India and Korea, the Department of Revenue issued a Notification No. 152/2009-Customs dated 31 December 2009 as amended by Notification No. 66/2016-Customs dated 31 December 2016, extending the benefit of Nil Basic Customs Duty3 to all goods falling under CTH 711021 to 711890 subject to the production of a certificate pertaining to the country of origin. The relevant parts of the aforesaid Notification are extracted hereinbelow: -

―Notification No. 152/2009-Customs dated 31.12.2009 Exemption of Customs duty on certain goods when imported into India from the Republic of Korea CEPA BCD W.P.(C) 8347/2020 G.S.R.(E).- In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 25 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962), the Central Government, being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby exempts goods of the description as specified in column (3) of the Table appended hereto and falling under the Chapter, Heading, Sub-heading or tariff item of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (51 of 1975) as specified in the corresponding entry in column (2) of the said Table, when imported into India from the Republic of Korea, from so much of the duty of customs leviable thereon as is in excess of the amount calculated at the rate specified in the corresponding entry in column (4) of the aforesaid Table:

However, of late there has been an unprecedented surge in import of gold coins from South Korea under INDIA - Korea CEPA. Customs being the verifying agency for Rules of Origin (RoO) criteria of the imported goods, may like to examine these consignments of gold with due diligence to ensure that such imports have complied with the RoO under the Indo-Korea CEPA.

3. To further amplify the point, since Korea is not a gold producing Country, the point to be checked is whether the exported gold articles from Korea are complying with the 'origin criteria' of Product Specific Rules of Origin under India-Korea CEPA. It may so happen that gold coins are being imported into Korea only for export purpose without any conversion facility. This is the right time for India to undertake a physical verification exercise (of manufacturing facility/premises) in coordination with our counterpart in Korea.