KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday directed the Pakistan Customs to provisionally release a consignment of ceramic and porcelain tiles after the importer deposits differential amount of customs duty with its Nazir.
M/s Cosmos International petitioned the high court, submitting that the customs staff assessed the customs value of ceramic and porcelain tiles imported from China on the basis of Valuation Ruling No.538/2013 dated January 2013, which is time-barred and invalid. Moreover, he added, the value determined on the basis of the ruling is 20 percent higher than actual given the prices of tiles prevailing in international markets.
He told the judges that the valuation ruling was not revised despite passage of considerable time and it was being applied to assess the value of imported consignments of tiles without jurisdiction. He, therefore, requested the court to direct Directorate of Customs Valuation to revise the ruling.
He said that the petitioner’s consignment of ceramic and porcelain tiles is awaiting clearance but due to impugned ruling it could not be cleared. He requested the court to order provisionally release of the consignment as his client was willing to deposit differential amount of duty with the Nazir.
