KARACHI: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation has revised the customs values of LED bulbs and LED tube-lights vide Valuation Ruling No 1192/2017 under Section 25-A of the Customs Act, 1969.
Background of the valuation issue: It has been brought to the knowledge of this Directorate General that LED bulbs and LED tube-lights were being assessed at varying values, mostly under invoiced. Therefore, this Directorate General initiated an exercise to determine the customs values of LED bulbs and LED tube lights.
A meeting with stakeholders was held on July 5, 2017. Importers had been requested to furnish the invoices of imports during the last three months showing factual values as well as the websites, names and e-mail addresses of known foreign manufacturers of the item in question through which the actual current values could be ascertained.
Besides copies of contracts and LCs opened during the last three months showing the value of item in question were also sought. The importers were also told to furnish copies of sales tax invoices issued during the last four months showing the difference in price (excluding duty and taxes) to substantiate that the benefit of difference in prices are passed on to the local buyers.
During the course of the meeting, the importers were of the view that the values of LEDs bulbs and tube-lights were much lower than the values worked out by the department. The local manufacturers were of the view that some importers were putting under invoiced values during the clearance of their items.
Valuation methods given in Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969 were followed to arrive at customs values of LED bulb and LED tube lights. Transaction value method provided in Section 25 (1) was found inapplicable owing to wide variation in the values being declared to the customs. Identical / similar goods value methods provided in Section 25 (5) & (6) 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.
Thereafter, market inquiry as envisaged under section 25(7) of the Customs Act, 1969, was conducted. For the purpose, different markets were surveyed repeatedly. The computed value method as provided in Section 25(8) of the Customs Act, 1969, could not be applied as the conversion costs from constituent material at the country of export were not available. Online values of subject goods were also obtained. All the information so gathered was evaluated and analyzed for the purpose of determination of customs values. Consequently, the Customs values of LED bulb and LED tube lights have been determined under Section 25(7) of the Customs Act 1969.
