KARACHI: A judgment passed by three member bench of Custom Appellate Tribunal headed by Chairman was suspended by Custom Appellate bench of High Court of Sindh while hearing a number of Special Custom Reference Applications filed by Pakistan Customs SAPT through counsel Sardar Zafar Hussain Advocate.
The bench also ordered issuance of notice of the proposed questions of law to the respondents while office will fix the next date of hearing. In all ten SCRA were filed by Director Custom Valuation, Karachi against Prime Trading Corporation and other importers engaged in import of Electrolytic Tin Plates (ETP) and Tin Free Sheets (TFS) of Primary and Secondary quality from worldwide sources. The goods were assessed under Valuation Ruling No 1681/2022 dated 22.7.2022.
The importers aggrieved by this VR filed Revision Petitions under section 25-D of the Customs act before the Director General Valuation who upheld the said ruling against which the importers filed separate but identical appeals before the Customs Appellate Tribunal, Karachi. The appeals were heard by a three member larger bench of the tribunal headed by Chairman Muhammad Arif Khan along with Mazhar Ali Ghallu, Member Judicial-II, Karachi and Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, Member Technixl-II, Karachi.
The tribunal set aside the Order in Revision as well as the Valuation Ruling 1681/2022 declaring it to be “contradictory” to Section 25-A and Section 25 of the Customs Act 1969. The tribunal also ordered refund of disputed amount deposited in terms of impugned VR and Order in Revision.
The said judgment was assailed in SCRAs No. 100 to 109 and after a brief hearing, the SHC custom bench admitted the SCRA and issued notice to the respondent importers while suspending the impugned judgment by the Custom Appellate Tribunal.