KARACHI: Valuation Ruling in respect of re-melt-able scrap has been withdrawn in view of the directions of the Court, submitted the Director Valuation, Pakistan Customs before a division bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar here yesterday.

Today Director Valuation Manzoor Memon, Collector Customs West Dr. Agha Jawwad, Collector Customs East Abdul Majid Yousufani, Additional Director Valuation Dr. Nadeem Memon, Additional Collector Customs, Port Muhammad Bin Qasim Nayyer Shafique, Additional Collector Customs West Zeba Bashir Ahmed appeared before the bench along with their counsel including Principal Law Officer Tariq Aziz, Ilyas Ehsan, Masooda Siraj, Kashif Nazeer and Zafar Hussain on a court notice. At the outset masood Siraj informed the court that directions of the court regarding deciding the review application against Valuation Ruling 767 dated 15-10-2015 has been complied with and the same has been withdrawn on Dec 04, 2015.

The counsel for petitioner Mehboob Re-rolling mill also confirmed that now the disputed goods are assessed under section 25 of the Customs Act 1969 and that petitioner intends to withdraw the petition. He also sought orders as to the return of differential amount of rupees 1,001,031 submitted before the Nazir of the SHC. The bench ordered the respondents to decide the application regarding differential amount in 60 days while the petition stands disposed of as “withdrawn”.

According to the facts of the case, petitioner imported scrap of rerollable items besides compressor scrap. The Custom officials in the meanwhile issued a VR on 15-10-2015 and assessed the imported goods at a rate of US $ 440 Mt and US $ 620 per MT. The petitioner refusing to accept the assessment impugned the same before SHC.

The SHC directed the respondent Director Custom, Valuation to decide the review petition if any filed by the petitioner. The Director Valuation in an order dated 4-12-2015 withdrew the said ruling accepting the contentions by the importers that price of scrap has gone down considerably and keeping this in view, the imported goods be cleared under section 25 of the Custom Act 1969 while discarding VR 767 o 2015.The goods can now be cleared at a rate of US $ 180 and US $ 200 per Metric Tonnes.