KARACHI: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation has issued Order-in-Revision against Valuation Ruling No681/2014.
According to details, the petitioners M/s Optic Class Distribution Network-Lahore, M/s Amir Enterprises-Rawalpindi, M/s Ameer Sons-Lahore, M/s Optolink International-Islamabad and M/s Mediniche International-Rawalpindi have submitted a petition before the then Director General-Customs Valuation Rubina Ather against the impugned Valuation Ruling No681/2014 regarding the contact lenses .
In the petition, the importers adopted the view point that being the regular importers the authorities concerned of the Valuation Department have not taken the stakeholders on board while exercising/market inquiry under Section 25(7) of Customs Act, 1969.
They further said that the contact lens is a very small field and being a smuggling prone item, if Customs values are kept so high then the bonafide importers will be discouraged. Either they will not be able to compete and close down or be forced to adopt the informal channels to survive and this will in-fact result in more loss of duty/taxes revenue.
Subsequently, the then Director General of the Directorate of Customs Valuation, Rubina Ather, in the order stated that “I believe that points raised by the petitioners are correct and for the valuation purposes distinction between power and without power is “immaterial”. Likewise conventional and not yearly disposal terminology is used internationally.
She further stated that the valuation fixed in the impugned Ruling No681/2014 is on higher side and imports from other origins like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippine are not covered.
In the order, she stated that after the examination of the available data and facts, it is, therefore, ordered that impugned Valuation Ruling No681/2014 is amended to the extent that same value is applied for all categories of contact lenses power or without power as in columns 5, 6 and 7 of the table, adding that Column 6 include origins Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines in addition to Korea and applicable values for all origin in S No.1, 2 and 3 are reduced by 15per cent.
