KARACHI: Director General Customs Valuation Syed Tanveer Ahme has directed Director Customs Valuation Wasif Memon to increase the values of Chinese origin tiles by 12.5 percent with immediate effect.
Manufacturers of tiles and ceramics including M/s Master Tiles Ceramics Industries and others had approached the Directorate General seeking upward revision in the values of tiles and ceramics determined vide Valuation Ruling No.874/2016. [the_ad id=”32940″]Manufacturers submitted that the prices at which the tiles are being declared appraised and cleared are not the true and correct transactional value, which is established with reference to data and import statistics.
As the declaration of customs value of the goods in question is invariably false, untrue or misleading the concept of employing the value of “identical goods” or “similar goods” as defined in Section 25(13) of the Customs Act 1969 is not directly applicable, relevant or appropriate as the customs value of identical goods and similar goods is also under-declared or mis-declared.
According to an estimates reported by manufacturers, as a result of under-invoicing and failure to declare the true, correct and full transaction value of the imported tiles at the time of payment of customs duty, loss to the exchequer of a least Rs400 million on annual basis is being caused and this loss is increasing day by day as massive quantities of tiles are being cleared by the customs authorities on the basis of declarations which do not reflect the true and correct transactional value for the tiles.
Manufacturers including Al-Shabbir, Master TilesAl-Karam etc. contended that their market share is being shrunk. Presently, the imports have captured around 75 percent of the market and 25 percent share is with manufacturers.
Units have closed and others are on the verge of collapse because of China’s dumping and under valuation in this sector policy due to which they are facing difficulties to compete and level playing field is not available to them.
They further stated that values of tiles are being lowered down continuously by the department in last three valuation rulings. Industry needs a fair value. They contended that the values are around 34 percent to 40 percent more as compared to the valuation ruling.
The contention of the importers is that the Pakistan tile industry is incompetent and inefficient and they cannot cut price due to high wastages. They stated that the data support their contention and actual values are low as compared to the valuation ruling.
The Directorate General observed that in few categories like 12″x12″, 12″x18″, 16″x16″ the values have been decreased whereas in rest of the categories the values have remained as such. These are the sizes which are mostly traded. If there is a downward trend then whole range of values had to be lowered down but it was observed that values were declined in only three categories in ceramic and porcelain whereas rest of the values remained unchanged.
During market inquiry it was found that prices of ceramic, porcelain etc. varied as per color, design, quality etc. In view of above, Director General observed that the prices have been fixed on lower side for Chinese origin tiles. Taking average values, it is ordered that prices of Chinese origin tiles shall be enhanced by 12.5 percent with immediate effect.