KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Saturday moved challenging imposition of the provisional anti-dumping duty on cold rolled sheets.
M/S Yaqoob Industries, M/S A and A Pipe Industries, M/S Arshad Industries (Pvt) Ltd, M/S Modern Pipe Mills (Pvt ) Ltd, M/S Tayyaba Industries International, Sama Trade, Umer Steel, M/S Karachi Tube Mills(Pvt ) Ltd, Siddique Brothers filed petition stating that they are engaged in the manufacturing of welded steel pipes and cold rolled coils (CRC) and registered as manufacturing under the Sales Tax Act, 1990.
The petitioners opened irrevocable letters of credit favor of their respective suppliers namely M/S Tranjin Rolling – one Steel Group, China. M/S Tangshan Iron & Steel Group, China and others for payment of the sales consideration due under the contracts.
The petitioners said that importers discharged the obligation placed thereupon by the contracts and awaited delivery of the quantity of cold rolled sheets on the terms agreed upon in the contracts. It is pertinent to the note that, at the time of opening of the letters of credit, neither any anti-dumping duties, whether provisional or otherwise, had been imposed by customs authorities nor the petitioners were aware of any pending investigation with respect for any preliminary investigation being carried out for the purpose of anti-dumping duties under the Anti-Dumping Act, 2015.
However, customs authorities issued a public notice saying that “the public at large was notified that inter alia, provisional anti-dumping duty on cold rolled coils sheets of primary and secondary of certain specifications originating in China and Ukraine, including those imported by the petitioners, shall be imposed as per the rules.”
The petitioners stated that “if above imposition of the impugned duty is allowed, it will cause them irrevocable hardship and financial losses. Citing Revenue Division secretary/FBR chairman, customs collector, Model Customs Collectorate West and East, and National Tariff Commission chairman, as respondents, the petitioners requested the court to restrain the respondents from imposing and charging any amount of provisional anti-dumping duty pursuant to the public notice dated January 13, 2016. The court was further requested to restrain authorities concerned from imposing the ‘anti-dumping duty on cold rolled sheets through the public notice.”
