KARACHI: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation has revised the customs values of stainless steel sheets/ coils/ circles (secondary quality) vide Valuation Ruling No 1194/2017 under Section 25-A of the Customs Act, 1969.
The customs values of stainless steel sheets / coils/ circles (secondary quality) were determined vide Valuation Ruling No. 773/2015, on November 27, 2015. The valuation ruling is more than one year old and LMB price of stainless steel has shown an upward trend in international market. Therefore, the Directorate General Customs Valuation initiated an exercise to determine the customs values of stainless steel sheets/ coils/ circles (secondary quality) under section 25A of the Customs Act 1969 in order to bring them in line with current price trend in the international market.
Meetings were held on 08.03.2017, 28.03.2017 05.04.2017 and 25.07.2017 with representatives from All Pakistan Stainless Steel Importers and Traders Association and other importers insisted that 15% discount of secondary quality was low.
They further informed that in Valuation Ruling No. 291/2011 dated 24.01.2011, department had allowed 40% discount on account of secondary quality in Stainless Steel Sheets/ Coils/ Circles from prime quality stainless steel sheets/ circles/coils.
Their stance for increase in discount on account of secondary quality form 15% to 40% was not acceptable being inconsistent with other iron and steel related items /products of secondary quality and the importers could not provide any tangible grounds in favour of their contention.
After deliberation it was agreed with consensus that the fresh valuation ruling of stainless steel sheets/ coils/ circles (secondary quality) 300 series and 200 series should be based on current LMB prices of stainless steel with previous practice / formula as enumerated in the previous valuation ruling No. 773/2015, dated 27-11-2015. which included 10% loading on account of thinner size, 37% discount upon value of 300 Series stainless steel for determining value of 200 series stainless steel, a loading of 15% for Japan origin, 5% and 10% discounts for India and China origins respectively; with 15% discount for secondary quality.
The values for 400 Series Stainless Steel shall be determined from Chinese Domestic LMB 430 series value, by deducting local taxes.
Valuation methods given in Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969 were applied sequentially to address the valuation issue at hand. Transaction Value Method under sub-section (1) of Section 25 of the Act ibid was found inapplicable because required information under the law was not available. Identical and Similar Goods valuation methods provided in sub-sections (5) and (6) of Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969 provided some reference values but due to wide variations in the declarations the same could not be relied upon exclusively.
In the sequential order this office also conducted market inquiries in terms of sub-section (7) of Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969. Input and feed back by the Stakeholders during meetings was also considered. Online LMB prices were also obtained. All the available information was analyzed and evaluated. Keeping all the above in view, customs values of stainless steel sheets/ coils/ circles (secondary quality) are determined under sub-section (9) of Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969.
