KARACHI: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation has revised the customs value of dates through Valuation Ruling No 1014/2017 under Section 25-A of the Customs Act, 1969.
Earlier, the customs values of dates were determined vide Valuation Ruling No. 501/2012 on December 4, 2012. Since, the applicable values for dates were determined more than four years ago, and recently, MCC Quetta has also determined the customs values of dates of Iranian origin imported via land route. It is, therefore deemed appropriate to re-determine customs value of dates in order to reflect the prevailing price trends in the local and international markets.
This prompted an exercise to re-determine the customs values of subject goods. In this context this Directorate General initiated an exercise for determination of customs values of dates.
During a meeting for the determination of customs values of dates with stakeholders was held on 3¬01-2017 which was duly attended by all the stakeholders. All the stakeholders strongly contended and requested that the said valuation ruling may be reviewed in the light of prevailing international and local market prices.
The view point of all participants was heard in detail and considered to arrive at fair value of subject goods. It was also highlighted that the subject goods are perishable items and therefore have got limited shelf life, consequently, near the expiry dates, these perishable items are sold on sale and discounted prices. It was further contended by the traders that since the subject goods are mainly being sold on super and general stores, therefore, a lot more expenses (shelf rent, marketing expenses, refrigeration cost etc.) are contributed at retail level which cannot be managed without adding extra value to the subject goods.
The importers contended that all these factors may also be considered in fixing value of subject goods. Prices are also verified on the basis of location of market in the city and date of expiry of the product in question.
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
