The Supreme Court has ruled that the amount of penalty under Section 114A of the Customs Act could not be more than the amount equal to the chargeable duty.

In this case, UK Enterprises imported integrated circuits made by Philips Ltd, Motorola Ltd and NEC from Hong Kong. The customs commissioner in Goa found that the items were heavily undervalued and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000.

On appeal, the Customs Tribunal raised it to Rs 10 lakh, which was more than the duty demanded which was Rs 4.91 lakh. The firm appealed to the Supreme Court which reduced the penalty to the latter amount.