KARACHI: Director General, Valuation, Pakistan Customs set aside Valuation Ruling 1448/2020 dated 02-06-2020 issued by Director Valuation in respect of mobile phone accessories.

The DG was hearing review filed by importer and associations including Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Representing the importers, an advocate from Franklin Law Associates emphasized that impugned items were highly smuggling prone goods. He submitted that owing to this VR, survival of the importers is at stake as amount of duty and taxes have increased massively. The counsel from law firm maintained that the market survey was not conducted properly and was not reflecting actual price of goods as the same was conducted from retailers  whose profit margins are exorbitantly higher in this line of business. The faulty exercise has led to the massive rise in the value of the mobile accessories/parts without any justification. The counsel said that market survey should be conducted from whole sellers and not retailers.

Franklin Law Associate also contended that the Valuation Ruling under challenge was determined in violation of section 25 and 25-A of the Customs Act 1969 and great haste was made as sequential method was not followed.

It was also contended on behalf of the importers that they were not given full opportunity of hearing and  that certain brands like Audionics, Faster and Ronin  were placed in category A without  providing any cogent reasons, whereas in previous VR they were placed in category B resulting into massive increase in their value.

The DG Valuation in his order noted that it transpired during proceedings that  “sufficient hearing opportunities were not given to the importers”. It was also noted that  categories of certain brands were changed without any cogent reason. The DG Valuation with these observations remanded back the VR to Director Valuation for re-determination by July 31 positively.