KARACHI: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation has revised the customs value of dry battery cell Valuation Ruling No 1189/2017 under Section 25-A of the Customs Act, 1969.
The aforesaid Valuation Ruling and Order-in-Revision were challenged before the Customs Appellate Tribunal, Karachi vide Customs Appeal No K-672/2017. The Customs Appellate Tribunal, Karachi set aside valuation ruling of dry battery cells and valuation department also directed to take appropriate measures and issue a fresh valuation ruling in accordance with the principles laid down in Sections 25 and 25-A of the Customs Act, 1969, after giving hearing opportunity to stakeholders. Hence this Directorate General initiated fresh investigation.
A meeting with stakeholders was held on 15-06-2017. Importers had been requested to furnish the 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. 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.
No documents were submitted in this Directorate General on or even after the said scheduled meetings. Resultantly numerous surveys were conducted for determination of the customs values.
Valuation methods given in Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969 were followed to arrive at customs values of dry battery cell. 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.
