KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued notices to the customs department and deputy attorney general on a constitutional petition filed by M/s Manzoor Sons Pvt Ltd, seeking release order of its consignments of non-woven material/ fabric seized by customs department due the disputed valuation.
Directives were issued by a division bench, headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi on Tuesday’s hearing, court also directed them to file their respective para wise comments on next date of hearing.
During the hearing, counsel for the petitioner stated in its constitutional petition that petitioner is engaged in the lawful import of raw material for garment industry, inter alia, for manufacturing in the local market of Pakistan, for such purpose, the petitioner imports non-woven, the petitioner has been availing the exemption that was afforded vide SRO 1125(1)/ 2011 and no sales tax was applicable to the petitioner at the import stage.
He further argued that petitioner is seriously aggrieved by the actions of the respondents, whereby containers of non-woven material have not been allowed to be cleared and are held up by the customs officials since April 16 to 18, 2018.
The petitioner has time and again requested for assessment, exemption along with provisional payment, however, no action, assessment or provisional determination has been calculated by the respondents.
Citing Chairman Federal Board of Revenue, Secretary Ministry of Finance, Chief Collector of Customs Collectorate East and others as respondents, he pleaded the court to declare the act of the respondents as illegal, mala fide and arbitrary.
He pleaded that court to direct the respondents to conduct a provisional assessment, amount or final assessment, whichever necessary and release the consignments of the petitioner with due implementation of the applicable SRO.
He also pleaded the court to restrain them from taking any coercive action against the petitioner till final order in this case.
