KARACHI: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation has revised the customs value of dry coconut (khopra) through Valuation Ruling No 1134/2017 under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969.
According to details, the customs values of dry coconut/khopra of various types from different origins were determined vide Valuation Ruling No. 1033/2017 dated 01-02-2017. Some importers/stakeholders agitated the values before the Director General Customs Valuation under section 25-D of the Customs Act, 1969.
The Director General Customs Valuation vide Order-In-Revision No. 322/2017 dated 07-04-2017 remanded the matter back to Director to conduct afresh the exercise of determination values of dry coconut/khopra various types, from different origin.
Therefore a fresh exercise was initiated to re-determine the values of dry coconut/khopra. A meeting for determination of customs values of Dry coconut/khopra with stakeholders was held on 18-04-2017 which was duly attended by all the stakeholders however, the representatives of Customs Quetta, and the Chambers of Commerce and Industry Quetta and Chaman could not attend the meeting despite being invited to the same for their valuable input. The representatives from All Pakistan Dry Fruit Importers and Exporters Association, Quetta attended the meeting.
The representatives from Customs Appraisement West shared their market inquiry and contributed to the working of this Directorate. All the stakeholders strongly contended and requested that the said Valuation Ruling may be reviewed in light of prevailing international and local market prices and further contended that the market surveys may be conducted from wholesale markets. The Pakistan Kiryana Merchants Association also submitted the prevalent wholesale prices of Copra of various origins. During the course of the meeting the representative of All Pakistan Dry Fruit Importers and Exporters Association, Quetta vehemently insisted that values of Copra are considerably lower than those determined vide the previous Ruling. The representatives of Pakistan Kiryana Merchants Association counter argued that in fact the value of khopra of various origins imported via land route through Customs Quetta, should in fact be higher than that for import via sea route given the extra freight incurred due to exports from country of origin to Iran and onward movement to Quetta / Balochistan through multi-modal transport of sea and land.
