KARACHI: A division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) directed collector of Customs Appraisement East/West/PMBQ to consider request of the petitioner for provisional release of its consignment strictly in accordance with the law and such progress report be furnished to this court on next date of hearing on a constitutional petition filed by M/s Aamir International seeking release order for its imported consignment of polyurethane pre-polymer detained by customs officials due to disputed valuation ruling.
On 25 July 2020, during the hearing, Imran Iqbal Khan, advocate for the petitioner submitted that petitioner is ready to secure the differential amount of duty and taxes etc, in the shape of pay order or bank guarantee in accordance with law, Sundur Lal Advocate, holding brief for Bilal Bhatti conceding to such contentions of the learned counsel for the petitioner, stated that the petitioner’s application will be considered and decided by customs officials in accordance with law.
Earlier, counsel for the petitioner submitted that petitioner has imported a consignment comprising above mentioned goods on transaction value of total USD 0.75/kg.
He stated that on arrival of the goods at Karachi Port, petitioner filed goods declaration and requested the appropriate officer to accept the declared value under section 25 (1) the customs act, 1969 and finalize the assessment accordingly, however, the concerned officer has not agreed with the declared transactional value and arbitrarily assessed the values on the basis of valuation ruling no 1351/2019.
Citing chairman FBR, collector of Customs Appraisement West/East/PMBQ and director valuation as respondents, petitioner pleaded the court may declare that act of the respondents is illegal, mala fide and arbitrary, he further pleaded the court may direct them to release his consignment immediately accordance with the law.
