KARACHI: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation revised the customs value of lead acid batteries through Valuation Ruling No 1111/2017 under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969.
Earlier, Customs values of lead acid batteries were determined under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969, vide Valuation Ruling No.723/2015, dated 03-03-2015 read with Corrigendum dated 18-03-2015. The Valuation Ruling required revision in line with the prevailing prices in the international market. Therefore, the Directorate General initiated an exercise for determination of Customs Values of lead acid batteries.
A meeting with stakeholders was held on 20-03-2017. Importers were requested to furnish invoices of imports during last three months showing factual value, websites, names and e-mail addresses of known foreign manufacturers of the item in question through which the actual current value can be ascertained, copies of contracts made/LCs opened during the last three months showing the value of item in question and copies of Sales Tax Invoices issued during last four months showing the difference in price (excluding duty and taxes) to substantiate that the benefit of difference in price is passed on to the local buyers.
No documents were submitted in the Directorate General on or even after the said scheduled meetings. Market surveys were conducted for determination of the customs values.
Valuation methods given in Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969 were followed to arrive at Customs Values of lead acid batteries. Transaction value method provided in Section 25 (1) was found inapplicable wing to wide variation in the values being declared to the customs. Identical/similar goods were examined for applicability to the Valuation issue in the instant case which provided some reference values of the subject goods but the same could not be exclusively relied upon due to wide variation in declared values of subject goods.
