KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday barred the Pakistan Customs from drawing millions of rupees regulatory duty from its Nazir till Friday.
A division bench of the SHC, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, gave this restraining order on the request of the counsel for the petitioner, an importers of steel and iron products who pleaded with it to restrain Pakistan Customs from withdrawing the amount deposited with its Nazir in terms of regulatory duty for provisional release of their consignments so that they could move the apex court against its verdict that dismissed their petitions challenging imposition of regulatory duty on imports of iron and steel material from China.
A large number of the importers of steel and iron products had approached the court, stating that Pakistan and China had entered into a Free Trade Agreement for import of steel and iron products and subsequently a notification was issued exempting regulatory duty on imports. However, they said, the federal government had issued SRO No. 601(1)2015 on June 30 whereby it amended its earlier SRO No. 568(1)2014 abolishing the exemption.
The counsel for the petitioners argued that the material they import from China comes within scope of FTA and therefore, the imposition of regulatory duty was illegal and unlawful.
During pendency of the petitions, the Court had ordered provisional release of the petitioner’s consignments with direction for them to deposit the impugned regulatory duty with Nazir of the court. On August 28, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah announced the 14-page-long verdict, dismissing the petitions. The court directed its Nazir to make payment of regulatory duty to Pakistan Customs.
