KARACHI: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation has revised the customs values of medical items/equipment vide Valuation Ruling No 1202/2017 under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969.
This Directorate General had earlier circulated the reference customs values of different medical items/equipment vide Valuation Ruling No 1021/2017 dated 26-01-2017 and Valuation Ruling 1062/17 dated 1-3-2017. However, some importers approached the Directorate General and requested revision of certain valuation ruling. Therefore, this Directorate General initiated an exercise to determine the customs values for the subject goods.
Meeting with stakeholders was held on 02-08-2017. The stakeholders were requested to furnish the documents before or during the course of above said meeting:- 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.
The representatives of Pakistan Chemist and Druggists Association and many importers attended the meeting. The Association and importers agreed with most of the prices circulated vide Valuation Ruling as reflective of traded values. However, agitating on few items some importers claimed that the circulated customs values were on higher side, whereas as per their claim, there was a downward trend in prices in the international market. However they did not submit any corroboratory document/evidence in support of their contentions. All the items’ values were discussed one by one in detail.
Method adopted to determine Customs values: Valuation methods given in Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969 were followed to arrive at customs value of different types of medical items. Transaction value method provided in Section 25 (1) was found inapplicable owing to wide variation in the values being declared to the customs and incomplete descriptions. 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 on due to wide variation in declared values of subject goods.
Thereafter, market inquiry as envisaged under Section 25(7) of the Customs Act, 1969, was conducted. A number of items sold in the local market were obtained and workout through deductive method of valuation. Online prices were also obtained to corroborate the findings of the market surveys.
