KARACHI: An appellate bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Sadiq Hussain Bhatti on Friday fixed Feb 26 to hear a Special Customs Reference Application (SCRA) filed by Pakistan Customs about alleged illegal import of Paracetamol.
Al Huda Feeds, respondents imported the consignment. The Custom officials detected that the importer filed an incorrect Goods Declaration. The importer later conceded that by mistake an incorrect GD has been filed. In the mean while the importer filed an appeal before the Special Customs Tribunal comprising Muhammad Nadeem Qureshi and Muhammad Yahya which ruled in favor of the appellant/importer declaring the same to “Frustrated Cargo” directing the Custom authorities to treat the consignment as such and release the same.
The Customs filed the instant SCRA impugning the judgment by the tribunal.
According to details, Pakistan Customs filed a contravention report against the respondents who filing a GD under PCT heading 3824.9099 claimed the value of the consignment at US $ 5525 or Rs 565, 296. The Customs assessed the consignment to be Paracetamol and valued it under PCT Heading 2924.2910 valued at US $ 68000 or Rupees 6,957,490 as offending value of the goods so declared.
The Appraising Officer Azhar Abbas found out that respondents/importer evaded custom duty, taxes, sales tax, additional income tax to a tune of rupees 3,917,723. It was also stated that import of pharmaceutical raw material is restricted and thus importer has violated the policy. Today a counsel appeared for the respondent company undertaking to represent them at which the bench adjourned hearing till Feb 26/