KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered the provisional release of a consignment of color master-batches.
A division bench of the SHC comprising Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Junaid Ghaffar directed the petitioner to deposit the differential amount of duty and taxes with the Nazir of the court till the issue involving valuation rates of color masterbatches is decided.
The court directed the customs authorities to decide the petitioner’s application seeking revision of the Valuation Ruling 515/2012 within 60 days.
Petitioner Shakeel Ahmed Maggo moved the high court, submitting that he imported a consignment containing 25,000 kilogram of black masterbatches. When the consignment arrived at the port, he through his clearing agent filed GD for its clearance.
However, he came to know that the customs authorities are assessing the value of masterbatches at $3.87 per kilogram under the Valuation Ruling 515/2012 which become outdated since the rates of color masterbatches reduced significantly with the passage of time.
Subsequently, he said, he filed an application before the Director Customs Valuation seeking revision of the above-mentioned ruling which is pending disposal. He said that he made a request to the customs authorities for provisional release of the consignment till the application is decided but it was turned down.
Therefore, he pleaded to the court to order the authorities to decide his application in accordance with law and order provisional release of the consignment.
