KARACHI: Directorate General Customs Valuation Karachi has upward revised customs values on the import of glass tubing used in the manufacturing of ampoules from China and Europe.
A new valuation ruling issued by the directorate has superseded the earlier Valuation Ruling No. 1199/2017.
According to a valuation ruling issued by the directorate here on Friday, the custom values of glass tubing were determined vide Valuation Ruling No. 1199/2017. The Valuation Ruling was challenged by the importers through a revision petition before the Director-General of Customs Valuation. The Director-General upheld the Valuation Ruling vide Order-in-Revision No.24/2018 dated 26.06.2018 under Section 25D of the Customs Act, 1969.
Some importers including the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) approached this Directorate-General for fresh determination of Customs Values of the said goods. Accordingly, an exercise was initiated in this Directorate General to determine customs values of glass tubing in terms of Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969.
The local manufacturer contended that the valuation ruling is more than four years old which should be revised upward in accordance with the current price trend in the international market. On the other side, importers contended that the values in the existing Valuation Ruling are already higher, therefore, customs values of subject goods may further be rationalized downward. The viewpoints of stakeholders were heard in detail and considered to arrive at customs values of the subject goods, the ruling said.
The valuation methods provided in Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969, were duly applied in their regular sequential order to arrive at the customs value of subject goods. The Transaction value method as provided in sub-section (1) of Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969, was found inapplicable because no substantial documents were provided by the stakeholders to prove that their declared values were true transactional values.
Moreover, different values were declared by different importers for the same product according to different origins. Identical/similar goods value methods provided in Sections 25(5) & (6) ibid were examined for applicability to determine customs values of subject goods.
The data provided some references, however, it was found that the same could not be solely relied upon due to the absence of absolute demonstrable evidence of qualities and quantities of a commercial level, etc. The information available was, hence, found inappropriate. In line with statutory sequential order of section 25, this office conducted market inquiries using deductive value methods under sub-section (7) of Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969, item was not readily available in the market, therefore, this method of valuation could not be relied upon due to aforesaid reasons.
