KARACHI: Directorate General of Customs Valuation has revised the customs values of soft and hard sawn wood vide Valuation Ruling No: 1267/2018 under Section 25A of the Customs Act-1969.
According to the details, the Customs values of soft and hard sawn wood were determined vide Valuation Ruling No.917/2016 dated 26.08.2016. As the ruling was old and values in the international market had changed, therefore, an exercise was initiated to determine the customs values of the aforementioned goods under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969.
Stakeholders’ participation in determination of Customs values: Stakeholders’ meeting was scheduled on 22.02.2018. The stakeholders were requested to furnish the following documents before or during the course of the meeting:
Invoices of imports during last three months showing factual value, websites, names and e-mail addresses of known foreign manufacturers of the item in question through which the actual current value can be ascertained, copies of contracts made / LCs opened during the last three months showing the value of item in question, copies of sales tax invoices issued during last three months showing the difference in price (excluding duty and taxes) to substantiate their contentions on the values.
The meeting was attended by different importers. The representatives of KTMG were of the view that prices in the international market has remained the same and only very marginal increased. It was further pointed out by an importer of Diyar Timber that the value of Russian and Afghanistan origins is higher as against their declared values. Valuation methods given in Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969, were followed to arrive at customs values of soft and hard swan wood.
Transaction value method provided in Section 25 (1) was found inapplicable owing to non-fulfillment of prescribed requirements. Identical / similar goods values methods provided in Section 25(5) & (6) were examined for applicability to the valuation issue in the instant case which provided a number of reference values of subject goods but the same could not he exclusively relied on due to certain variations in declared values of subject goods.
Thereafter, market enquiries as envisaged under Section 25(7) of the Customs Act, 1969, were conducted. Online prices were also obtained to corroborate the findings of market survey.
