KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) appellate bench comprising Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan issued detailed judgement regarding provisional assessment under Section 81 (4). The bench observed that the provisional assessment will attain finality if the department fails in final determination.
On 31 March 2022, the bench in its detailed order decided four identical constitution petitions filed by different importers. Sardar Muhammad Ishaque advocate appearing for the petitioners submitted that it was the requirement of law that when any provisional assessment/determination has been made under Section 79 of the Customs Act, the law requires of the custom authorities to finalize the same within a period of six months. If this is not followed then under Section 81(4), the provisional determination in the absence of any new assessment will deemed to be final.
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Rashid Arfi advocate appearing in two petitions on behalf of the department conceded that the mandatory time period has passed. He next argued that since the amount of duties and taxes have been secured against bank guarantee and pay orders, therefore final determination was not made. He contended that an explanation has been added to the Section 81 (5) empowering the department to finalize the assessment even after six months mandatory period.
As the other counsel for department do not oppose the plea by petitioners, the bench allowed the petitions accepting the arguments from petitioners side.
