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Informist, Friday, Mar. 13, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – Rejecting an appeal by the customs department, the Supreme Court Friday upheld the classification of aircraft engine stands as containers, as sought by IndiGo parent InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., and not trailers under the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. The top court dismissed the customs department's plea seeking INR 25.37 million duty from IndiGo's parent on the basis of classification of aircraft engine stands as trailers.

 

InterGlobe Aviation is a scheduled airline operator engaged in the business of transportation of passengers and goods by air from various places in India and outside India. To carry out scheduled operations in India, the company imports aircraft and their parts. It also imports aircraft engines with engine stands, when required for repair, maintenance or otherwise.

 

The dispute pertains to classification of the aircraft engine stands imported with engines by InterGlobe Aviation during the period from April, 2018 to March, 2019. The customs department said that these aircraft engine stands should be classified as trailers and semi-trailers. 

 

The customs department said that engine stands are typically mounted on large casters so that an engine can be moved around to different test and repair stations, and the engine can often be rotated in midair to provide easier access to underside surfaces of the engine. The engine stand, though acts as a safety guard for the engine, but is mainly a trailer for transportation of the engine, said the department.

 

The engine stand is specially designed for safely transporting the aircraft engines through different modes of transport, said InterGlobe Aviation. The transportation of the engine for small distances by way of caster wheels installed on the aircraft engine stands is purely incidental to the principal function performed by the engine stand of holding and containing the engine in the cradle, said the company. 

 

The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, in 2025, ruled that the engine stand was only used as a safety guard for the engine, which prevented the engine from shocks during transportation. The actual transportation of an engine placed on an engine stand was done by another mode of transportation, like a truck or an aircraft or a vessel, said the appellate tribunal. The sole purpose of an engine stand is to only protect the engine against any shock and ensure safe transportation of the aircraft engine, it added, quashing the customs department's notice to InterGlobe Aviation seeking the duty amount. Challenging the appellate tribunal's order, the customs department moved the apex court, which upheld the former's order.

 

At 1249 IST, the shares of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. were down 2.5% at INR 4,147.80 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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