KARACHI: A bench of the Customs Appellate Tribunal comprising Nadeem Qureshi, Member Judicial and Muhammad Nazim Saleem, has disposed of appeals filed by 13 importers to set aside Order in Revision passed by the Director General Valuation and directed the customs to re-assess the values of imported buckram.
The appeals were filed by M/s Carewell Traders, M/s Dawn Trading Company, M/s Horizon Enterprises, M/s A.A. Interlining, M/s Royal Business International, M/s Latif Bukram Store, M/s Amir Brothers, M/s Qadir Trading Company, M/s Fine Traders, M/s Fine Industries, M/s Alpha Trading Company, M/s SS International, M/s Pak Fabric, M/s Waris Sharif & Co and M/s Ihsan & Sons against Order in Revision No.264/2016 dated 11.11.2016, passed by the Director General of Customs Valuation, Karachi against the Valuation Ruling No.926/2016 dated 08.09.2016 passed by the Director, Valuation, Customs House, Karachi.
Directorate General of Customs Valuation, Customs House were respondents in the appeals. According to the facts of the case the appellant are importers of woven and non-woven interlining buckram material in black & white colors classifiable under PCT Heading 5901 & 5603, respectively.
The goods were being imported from China, Korea and other countries, previously the goods have regularly been imported @ $0.80/kilogram to $1.80/kg depending on the category/quality of the buckram. The local manufacturers of the said item approached the officers of Directorate General of Customs Valuation Customs House, Karachi for enhancement of import value of said item to protect their industry. The Director General Valuation, Customs House, Karachi with the active collaboration of local manufacturers issued a Valuation Ruling No. 428/12 dated 13.02.2012 & revised the values with the pre-text that the international prevailing prices of the said item are on higher side.
The Director Valuation again re-determined the values without proper consultation with stake holders and issued Valuation Ruling No. 926/16 dated 08.09.2016 between $4.41 and $6.65 per kilogram. As the revised values were not acceptable to the importers, they filed revision application before the director general Valuation, Customs House, Karachi also seeking clearances under section 81 of the Customs Act, 1969 till the order-in-revision.
