Section 28 Duty Demand / Short Levy

Finin2min litigation and notices guide: Customs Notices: practical notice response guide with triggers, evidence checklist, examples and Q&A.

Finin2min Litigation & Notices Hub

Section 28 Duty Demand / Short Levy

Customs Notices: practical notice response guide with triggers, evidence checklist, examples and Q&A.

Finance & Law Explained in 2 Minutes

Authority / Legal Hook

Customs Act, 1962 s.28

Notice responseEvidence firstCFO/legal escalation

What usually triggers this notice?

Short levy, non-levy, erroneous refund or interest demand.

Mismatch between filings, books, returns, disclosures or transaction records.
Inspection, intelligence, audit, investigation or third-party data.
Delay, non-filing, wrong classification, inadequate control evidence or disputed interpretation.

Immediate 48-hour response checklist

Step	Action	Owner
1	Verify issuing authority, DIN/reference number, date of service and response deadline.	Legal/Compliance
2	Freeze all relevant records and create a notice chronology.	Process owner
3	Quantify financial exposure: principal, interest, penalty, prosecution/attachment risk.	Finance
4	Prepare evidence index and assign annexure numbers before drafting.	Documentation SPOC
5	Escalate to CFO/Legal Head where risk is high or allegation involves fraud, wilful default or market abuse.	Tax/Legal Head

Reply strategy

Check limitation, valuation/classification evidence, pre-notice consultation record, import documents, contemporaneous prices and suppression allegation.

State preliminary objections without aggressive language.
Separate facts from legal submissions.
Attach reconciliations, contracts, ledgers, portal screenshots and board/management approvals.
Request personal hearing where law/procedure permits.
Never make a blanket admission unless approved after professional review.

Practical example

A company receives this notice after a regulator compares filing data with books/third-party information. The first response should not be a generic denial. Finin2min approach: build a one-page timeline, quantify exposure, tag documents, identify procedural defects, then draft a fact-linked response with annexures.

Mini Q&A

Can the notice be ignored?

No. Non-response may lead to ex-parte orders, penalty, recovery or adverse inference.

Should the company reply immediately?

Reply only after validating the notice, facts, limitation and evidence. A rushed reply can create avoidable admissions.

When should senior management be informed?

Immediately where the notice involves large exposure, fraud/wilful default, director/officer liability, market reputation, account freeze, attachment or prosecution risk.

Finin2min Crux

Section 28 Duty Demand / Short Levy: win the first 48 hours by controlling the file — timeline, documents, exposure, authority, limitation and one clean evidence-backed reply.