KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered provisional release of a consignment of PVC Flex imported by M/s Astrontech (Private) Limited.
The court directed the petitioner to deposit differential amount of custom duty with Nazir of the court. Petitioner M/s Astrontech submitted that it had imported PVC Flex from China. When the consignment arrived at the port he filed general declaration for its release.
However, it got to know that the customs officers were assessing the value of the goods on the basis of Valuation Ruling No.605/2013 dated November 2013 which is time-barred and invalid. The counsel for the petitioner told the judges that fresh revision of the valuation ruling is underway.
In the meantime, he said, he wrote letters to Pakistan Customs seeking provisional release of the consignment on indemnity bond or bank guarantee of differential amount of duty but his request was not considered. Therefore, he requested the court to direct the customs authorities to release the petitioner’s consignment till the matter involving assessment of actual value of the petitioner’s consignment is decided.
