KARACHI: The Collectorate of Customs Adjudication has issued Order-in Original (ONO) against the importer, Saima Packaging (Private) Limited for its alleged involvement in concealing the actual description of the imported goods through mis-declaration.
According to details, the Model Customs Collectorate of Appraisement (East) detected a case in which the Saima Packaging tried to pay 10 percent duty on the goods which had actually 20 percent customs duty.
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The authorities concerned, in order to check, as to whether the importer has correctly paid legitimate amount of duty/taxes in term of Section 80 of the Customs Act, 1969.
Scrutiny of the goods revealed that the importer has mis-declared the description, classification and value of the goods notwithstanding the fact that the shipment is affected through concluded contract i.e. letter of credit which is considered to be a vital instrument for international trade.
The test report found that the importer has concealed the actual description, classification and value of the goods to suppress the duty/taxes.
The total amount of revenue involved has been determined as Rs 2,222,533 while considering the available data of similar kind of goods in terms of Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969 and Rule 107(a) of the Customs Rules, 2001 the determined value of the offending goods comes to Rs 3,595,585.
The MCC-Appraisement (East) was of the view that the importer deliberately mis-declared the description, classification and value to defraud the government revenue. Therefore, the collectorate forwarded the contravention report to the collectorate of Adjudication leveling Sections 32(1), 32(2) and 32(A), 79(1) of Customs Act, 1969 punishable under Clause 14, 14 (A) and 45 of Section 156 (1); Section 33 of Sales Tax Act, 1990 under Clause 11(C), Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 and also violated SRO 499(1)/2009 under Clause 1(c) and (e) of the Table.
According to the Collectorate of Customs Adjudication, the charges against the importer stand established in violation of Sections 32(1), 32(2) and 32(A), 79(1) of Customs Act, 1969 punishable under Clause 14, 14 (A) and 45 of Section 156 (1); Section 33 of Sales Tax Act, 1990 under Clause 11(C), Section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 and also violated SRO 499(1)/2009 under Clause 1(c) and (e) of the Table. However; the collectorate has given an option to the importer to redeem its goods under Section 181 of the Customs Act, 1969 on payment of a fine equal to Rs 719,117 @ 20 per cent of ascertained value of the offending goods in terms of SRO 499(I)/2009 and there will be additional duty/taxes otherwise leviable. A penalty of Rs 50,000 is also imposed under clause 14 and 14 (A) of Section 156(1) of the Customs Act, 1969 on the importer.
