KARACHI: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation revised the customs value of carbon black (rubber grade) through Valuation Ruling No: 1029/2017 under Section 25-A of the Customs Act, 1969.
According to details, the values of carbon black (rubber grade) for reference/guidance were earlier issued vide VDB No: 69/2016 dated October 31, 2016. However several representations were received from commercial importers and local manufacturers for determination of customs value of carbon black (rubber grade) after considering the current international prices.
A meeting with all stakeholders including importers and representatives from clearance Collectorate was held on February 2, 2017 to discuss the current international prices of the subject item. The commercial importers stated that the prices of subject item are showing down ward trend in the international markets where as the local manufacture in their representation disagreed with them. The view point of all participants was heard in detail and considered to arrive at Customs values of carbon black (rubber grade).
Valuation methods provided in Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969 were duly applied in their regular sequential order to address the particular valuation issue at hand. The transaction value method as provided in Sub-Section (1) of Section 25, found inapplicable in light of the wide variety of invoices submitted at import stage the veracity of which could not be ascertained fully, hence requisite information required under law was not available to arrive at the correct transaction value.
Identical / similar goods value method provided vide Sub-Sections (5) & (6) of Section 25 ibid were examined for applicability to determine Customs value of subject goods, this data provided some references, however, it was found that the same cannot be solely relied upon due to the absence of absolute demonstrable evidence of qualities and quantities of commercial level etc., and also it was observed that importers usually provided misleading description while declaring goods, as other types and varieties of similar goods to avoid the application of valuation ruling. Information available was, hence, found inappropriate.
