KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) is expected to pronounce its verdict on Friday (today) on over 150 petitions, challenging imposition of regulatory duty on imports of iron and steel from China.
Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who headed a division bench, had reserved the judgment after hearing final arguments.
The petitioners had stated that Pakistan and China had entered into a Free Trade Agreement for import of steel and iron products and subsequently a notification was issued exempting regulatory duty on imports. However, they said, the federal government had issued SRO No. 601(1)2015 on June 30 whereby it amended its earlier SRO No. 568(1)2014 abolishing the exemption.
The counsel for the petitioners argued that the material they import from China comes within scope of FTA and therefore, the imposition of regulatory duty was illegal and unlawful. They prayed to the Court to declare as illegal the notification regarding imposition of regulatory duty and direct the respondents to withdraw the same.
The petitioners submitted that their consignments have arrived at the port awaiting clearance but due to impugned imposition of regulatory duty they could not be cleared. Therefore, they requested the court to order release of their consignments to save containers rent and demurrage charges and avoid loss to the petitioners.
As an interim relief the Court had directed the customs authorities to release the petitioners’ consignments of iron and steel products after receiving duty and taxes. The Court directed the petitioners to deposit the disputed regulatory duty with nazir of the Court.
