LAHORE: By weighing essential packing in the assessable value of consignments, the Customs Department has been flouting the directives of Lahore High Court (LHC).
As per details, the LHC in its order of April 30, 2014, directed the customs department to ensure assessment of consignments as per the letter of November 4, 2011 with reference to its earlier letter of October 4, 2009 by the valuation authorities.
The letter mentions that all valuation ruling wherein it is “explicitly so mentioned” shall be applicable to the weight of the goods along with weight of essential packing of the consignments, while all other valuation ruling shall be applicable to the net weight including essential packing weight of the consignments.”
It also communicated that appraisal of assessable value, inclusive of the cost of containers which are treated as being one for customs purposes with the goods question, to the extent that they are incurred by the importer, but are not included in the price actually paid or payable of the imported goods is, therefore, legally correct and should be implemented by all collectorates for uniformity of assessment.
Instead of assessing consignments as per guidelines mentioned in these letters to comply with the LHC’s directives, the customs department in Karachi did not revoke its earlier practice of including weight of essential packing in the assessable value of the consignments, which is nothing but to drag importers into double taxation regime.
The customs department in order to achieve its revenue target was assessing the consignments under the guidelines given in the letter of March 27, 2014, which was against the court orders. Meanwhile, some importers demanded the authorities concerned to implement the procedure of assessment as per international practice to facilitate the stakeholders.
