KARACHI: The Director General, Customs Valuation exercising powers conferenced under section 25-A of the Customs Act 1969 issued a new Valuation Ruling (VR) in respect of Contact Lenses. According to the VR 904/2016 the Contact Lenses would be classified under PCT heading  9001.3000.

According to the new VR however the proposed PCT for WeBOC for import from China would be 9001,3000.1000, 9001.3000.1100 and  9001.3000.1200 while  import from Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and Japan would be 9001.3000.1300, 9001.3000.1400 and 9001.3000.1500 and for imports from USA, Europe and Australia would be under 9001.3000/1600, 9001.3000.1700 and  9001.3000.1800.

The valuation ruling also categorizes the Contact Lenses for levy of custom duty as follows: Daily/One day use Monthly/ Frequent replacement, Conventional/Yearly with C&F price ranging between  US $ 0.55 to US $ 3.3. The Valuation department claims that new VR was issued  after following procedure laid down under section 25-A including meetings with the stake holders, procuring import data including invoices for the previous three months, details about manufacturers with actual current values. All the concerned assessing officers were directed to follow the values and assess the same on the basis of correct classification. The new VR 949 0f 2016 supersedes VR 681 0f 2014.