KARACHI: The hearing of a constitution petition filed by importer of Indian yarn was put off indefinitely as petitioner counsel failed to accept the terms offered by a divisional bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) to resolve the controversy.
According to details, a commercial importer imported synthetic yarn from India and filed the Goods Declaration declaring the custom duty to be US $ 0.3 per kilogram or PKR 30. The Customs Valuation disputing the declared rate assessed the consignment at US $ 11 per kilogram. The importer agreed to pay US $ 7 per kilogram as per Valuation Ruling and sought release but the release was denied by the Valuation.
Today the bench expressed its surprise at the abysmally low custom duty rate claimed by the petitioner. Have you imported clay, duty on even clay may be higher, the bench observed. There should be a limit to every thing, the bench remarked.
On plea, that custom is denying release of the consignment for no reason, the bench asked the counsel for petitioner to refer to any mechanism in Custom Laws, which allow release of mis-declared goods.
The bench later said that it can direct release if petitioner is ready to pay custom duty at the rate of US $7, pay differential amount at a rate of US $ 4 besides paying fine and penalty through solvent surety.
How I can pay the fine and penalty, which is not determined, yet, replied the counsel for petitioner. The bench annoyed by the reply adjourned further proceedings in the matter to an unspecified date.[the_ad id=”31605″]