KARACHI: A division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) issued pre-admission notices to customs officials and also directed them to consider the request of petitioner for provisional release of the consignment subject to deposit of disputed amount of duty and taxes by way of bank guarantee/ pay order on a constitutional petition filed by M/s City Steel.
On 15 September, while the hearing, a two-member bench, headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi also restrained customs department to encash the bank guarantee/ pay order till further orders by the court.
During the hearing, counsel for the petitioner submitted that petitioner has imported the consignment of Zincalume G-550C unchromated dry steel coils of secondary quality from Australia by declaring the same under PCT Heading NO HS Code 7210.6110 at unit price US$ 0.43 per kg.
He further argued that however, respondents, have assessed the same at unit price US$ 0.06 per kg, as per value given in LME, instead of accepting the transactional value of the petitioner or in case of dispute, he requested that in order to avoid demurrage charges, respondents, may be directed to allow provisional release of the consignment, as the petitioner is willing to secure the disputed amount d duty and taxes by way of pay order or bank guarantee before the concerned collectorate, who may be directed not to encash the same till further orders by this court.
After the hearing, court issued pre-admission notices to ministry of finance, chief collector Customs Appraisement West and deputy attorney general of Pakistan and directed them to file their respective para wise comments on next date of hearing.
Court also connected the matter with other constitutional petition filed by another importer on the same ground.
