KARACHI: A Customs Appellate Bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Justice Agha Faisal and Justice Shah Nawaz Memon decided four identical Special Custom Reference Application (SCRA) 438, 439, 440 and 441 of 2016 in favor of the Customs Department.
The bench earlier perused the following question of law Whether the Customs Appellate Tribunal was justified in law in displacing the customs value determined and notified under Section 25-A of the Customs Act 1969 vide Valuation Ruling No 496/2012 dated 27.11.2012 when a subsisting, un-rescinded Valuation Ruling was in the field and the only remedy available to an importer against such a notified Ruling lay under Section 25-D of the Act before the Director General, Customs Valuation and not by way of appeal before the Collector (Appeals).
The bench heard Khalid Rajpar Advocate, counsel for the Applicant department who submitted that this is not the case of first impression as the said issue has already been decided in favor of the department by virtue of judgment in case of Collector of Customs versus Wasim Radio Traders (2023 SCMR 1716) and Messer’s Shamim Ahmed Agencies versus Federation of Pakistan reported as 2024 PTD 736 (SHC). The counsel submitted that these judgments are applicable Mutatis Mutandis.
The bench agreed to such arguments and answered the proposed question of law in favor of the applicant department.
