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Informist, Friday, Jul 26, 2024

 

NEW DELHI – The Bombay High Court today refused to give a refund to Colgate-Palmolive (India) Ltd on octroi duty paid by the company to Bombay Municipal Corporation between April 1995 to March 2001. The court said Colgate-Palmolive neither pleaded nor established that it had not passed on the burden of the alleged excess octroi collected by the corporation to its consumers.

 

The court said that it was reasonable to assume that Colgate-Palmolive passed on such a burden of excess octroi to millions of its consumers. "Accordingly, allowing any refund to the petitioner would only unjustly enrich the petitioner even though it is not established that the petitioner has suffered any real loss or prejudice," the court said.

 

Further, the court said there was no record of Colgate-Palmolive paying the demanded octroi duties under protest to the corporation. "The octroi duties were paid without any protest or demur." 

 

The court was hearing a plea by Colgate-Palmolive that the levy of octroi by the corporation was unconstitutional. It also sought quashing of the assessment of octroi duty in respect of the goods brought into the limits of Greater Bombay by the company. 

 

The court, however, said it has not gone into the issue of whether the value of articles ought to have been determined under octroi rules. This question is, therefore, kept open for the decision of the deputy assessor and collector on a case-to-case basis. If the determination of deputy assessor aggrieved Colgate-Palmolive, the latter had the statutory right to appeal it, the court said.

 

Today, the shares of Colgate-Palmolive (India) Ltd ended 0.4% higher at 3,165.20 rupees on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

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