KARACHI: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation has revised the customs values of LED television sets through Valuation Ruling No 1089/2017 under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969.
According to details, the customs values of LED television sets were determined under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969, vide Valuation Ruling No.675/2014, dated 02-05-2014. As new technology like 3D, Smart TVs, 4K, UHD T.Vs, Curved T.Vs are gradually replacing, the old technology. As a result, old technology television sets have become cheaper. 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 LED television sets.
Sources said that different meetings with stakeholders were held and a final meeting was held on 01-11-2016. Importers were requested to furnish invoices of imports during last three months showing factual values, websites, names and E-mail addresses of known foreign manufacturers of the item in question through which the actual current values can be ascertained, copies of Contracts made / LCs opened during the last three months showing the values 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 dilThrenee in price is passed on to the local buyers.
During the course of meeting, the importers were of the view that the values of LED television sets have actually gone down and currently are much lesser than the values determined vide Valuation Ruling No.675/2014 dated 02-05-2014.
The importers further stated that in the interest of justice a level playing field shall he provided between manufacturer and commercial importers. They claimed that the government had already issued exemption notifications for local manufacturers, whereas the importers were paying customs duty and taxes on higher slabs and were facing huge problem in clearances owing to higher values in the Valuation Ruling No.675/2014, dated 02-05-2014 which with passage of time has become irrelevant to the market realities.
Resultantly the difference between the present international prices and the values determined vide Valuation Ruling No.675/2014 dated 02-05-2014 is increasing every day and the VR values of LED Television Sets have no relevance with actual prevailing international prices. They claimed that, owing to this situation, the legal import was shifting towards smuggling.
