KARACHI: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation revised the customs value of cameras through Valuation Ruling No 1096/2017 under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969.
According to details, the Directorate General issued VDB values of different brands of cameras vide VDB letter No. 172 dated 26-01-2017. Meanwhile, the Directorate General also initiated an exercise for determination of customs values of cameras of different brands.
Sources said that a meeting with stakeholders was held on 01-03-2017. Importers were requested to furnish invoices of imports during last three months showing factual value, websites, names and e-mail addresses of known foreign manufacturers of the item in question through which the actual current value can be ascertained, copies of contracts made/LCs opened during the last three months showing the value of item in question and copies of Sales Tax Invoices issued during last four months showing the difference in price (excluding duty and taxes) to substantiate that the benefit of difference in price is passed on to the local buyers.
However no documents were submitted in the Directorate General on or before the said scheduled meeting.
Method adopted to determine Customs values: Valuation methods given in Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969 were followed to arrive at customs values of Cameras. Transaction value method provided in Section 25 (1) was found inapplicable owing to wide variation in the values being declared to the customs. Identical/similar goods value methods provided in Section 25 (5) & (6) were examined for applicability to the valuation issue in the instant case which provided some reference values of the subject goods but the same could not be exclusively relied upon due to wide variation in declared values of subject goods.
Thereafter, market enquiry as envisaged under section 25(7) of the Customs Act, 1969, was conducted. For the purpose, different markets were surveyed repeatedly. The computed value method as provided in Section 25(8) of the Customs Act, 1969, could not be applied as the conversion costs from constituent material at the country of export were not available.
