KARACHI: A divisional bench of High Court of Sindh, Justice Munib Akhter and Justice Anwar Hussain on Tuesday allowed provisional release of a consignment of “mixture fatty acids” against payment of differential amount of custom duty and taxes half with the Collectorate of Customs and half with the Nazir of the SHC.
The bench earlier heard Imran Iqbal Khan advocate who appeared for M/s. Safayer Management Co, challenging the classification of goods by the Customs Authorities.
According to petitioner they imported “mixture of fatty acid” by seeking the assessment under PCT heading 3823.1990 but customs assessed the consignment under heading 1518.0000 which is for Animal or Vegetable Oil. The counsel for the petitioner has contended that the classification made by the customs under heading 1518.0000 is illegal and without giving an opportunity of hearing to the Petitioner. He further contended that while re-classifying the goods under heading 1518.0000 the customs have maintained the description in column “Assessed” as “MIXTURE OF FATTY ACIDS” as declared by the Petitioner which clearly proves that the customs have not made any case for re-classification of the impugned goods. The counsel for the petitioner also contended that as per Analysis Certificate issued by the manufacturer of the goods the goods are of “mixture of fatty acids” hence the lab test report does not specifically say that the goods are other than mixture of fatty acid or found to be animal or vegetable oil as claimed by the custom. He further argued that the customs authorities have illegally held the consignments of the Petitioner for no fault of them as since the classification dispute are always questions of law therefore prayed for immediate release of the consignment.
The SHC bench after hearing the sides asked the Respondents as to how they are holding the consignment.
The Department has contended that contravention report as well as show cause notice on the issue has already been issued to the petitioner and the petitioner may avail his remedy under the Customs Act, 1969 by defending the show cause notice before the appropriate adjudication forum and release of the consignment shall be subject to the order of the relevant adjudication authority.
The Honorable Bench has considered the counsel’s contention and directed the customs authorities to release the goods by securing one and a half of the differential amount of duty and taxes before the relevant Collectorate and one and a half of the differential would be secured by the Nazir of the High Court. The learned counsel for the customs department has vehemently contested and.