KARACHI: Pakistan Customs was ordered on Wednesday to remove hold forthwith from consignments of LCD parts imported by Spark World Private distributors of Samsung products in Pakistan.
The order came from a customs appellate bench comprising Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Justice Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan who heard a counsel from Franklin Law Associates who maintained that petitioner is a regular importer of parts for LCD’s, mobiles etc as a manufacturer, assembler and service shop holder across Pakistan. Seven consignments were put on hold by the Directorate of Intelligence and Investigations (DIT) while more are approaching and few more are in the pipeline, the counsel submitted adding that service centres will came to a halt if the hold on imported parts is not removed. He argued that consignments were under assessment and DIT has no jurisdiction at this stage.
The importer approached the DIT for release of his goods but was told that his items will be assessed under Valuation Ruling 1089 of 2017 and not under VR 1168 of 2017 and 971 of 2016. The counsel maintained that as per wishes of custom officials, an amount of rupees 18 million was paid in the form of Pay order as surety till dispute over Valuation Ruling is sorted out. Yet they are not releasing the goods causing damage to the importers reputation as repair services would be halted, he added.
The bench was also told that custom officials are demanding an undertaking in writing that the actions by them would not be challenged before a court of law.
The bench after detailed hearing ordered removal of ban forthwith and also to issue a delay detention certificate while petitioner was asked to avail remedy against forced assessment under VR 1089/2017 before relevant forum. The bench later put of further hearing till Oct 10 when it sought a compliance report.