KARACHI: The Director General of Customs Valuation has ruled that the ‘art card coated paper and light weight coated paper’ may be given discount as against identical/similar goods cut to size may be considered at the time of issuance of revised Valuation Ruling having prospective application.

The Director General Valuation also advised that the stakeholders should be associated along with other stakeholders while determining customs value of the impugned goods.

M/s Z.A Corporation, an importer of the impugned goods in a review application submitted that no discount was given to Reels as compared to Sheets. That the exporter/supplier in the foreign country offers discount on the import of ‘full decide reels’ (on account of the same being deemed and treated as semi-finished’ and not as finished goods) between $100 to $150 PMT, which is 4 to 5 times higher than the discount on sheets and reels.

The applicant added that on one hand the importers of the paper products are being burdened with higher values, on the other hand they are being denied discount given to them by the supplier resulting in payment of excessive amounts of duties/taxes.

In its review application against valuation ruling No. 485/2012, the applicant noted that the contents of the impugned valuation ruling fail to establish that a local market enquiry was indeed carried out as suggested. No visible exercise appears from the contents of the impugned valuation that market inquiry has taken place.

The Director General Customs Valuation has ruled that the importers and stakeholders should be associated while determining customs values of impugned items.