KARACHI: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation revised the customs value of synthetic carpet tiles through Valuation Ruling No 1087/2017 under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969.
According to details, the Customs values of carpet tiles were earlier determined vide VDB no. 44/2016 dated 28-09-2016 representations were received from commercial importers, for determination of customs values of carpet tiles afresh.
A meeting with all stakeholders and representatives of clearance Collectorates was held on 28-02-2017 to discuss the current international prices of subject item. The commercial stated that the subject item is imported as per requirements of the clients according to different designs, colors, sizes, etc. and there are only one or two importers who imports this item in small quantity from different origins and sometimes there prices are higher than the prices of VDB.
In support of their contention they have referred to the import data and import documents.
Valuation methods provided in Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969 were duly followed and applied sequentially to address the valuation issue at hand. Transaction value method provided in Sub-Section (1) of Section 25 was found inapplicable because it is generally known to all that majority of invoices produced at import stage are manipulated/fabricated and hence the requisite information required under the law was not available to arrive at the correct transaction value.
Identical/similar goods value method provided in Sub-Sections (5) & (6) of Section 25 ibid were examined for applicability to determine Customs value of subject goods, the 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. In line with the statutory sequential order of Section 25, this office then conducted a market inquiry using Deductive Value Method under Sub-Section (7) of the Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969, however, it was found that the determination of Customs value could not be based solely upon this method either.
