KARACHI: Announcing a reserved judgment, a custom appellate bench of High Court of Sindh set aside the order of the Custom Appellate Tribunal and remanded the case back to the Valuation Collectorate for re-assessment under section 25 of Customs Act 1969.The SCRA was filed by Director General Valuation and Collectorate of Customs East, SAPT and West through Sardar Zafar Hussain Advocate.
The court re-phrased following three questions of law after hearing the sides
i) Whether in the facts and circumstance of the case learned Appellate Tribunal was justified in holding that the value of goods in question were determined directly under Section 25(7) & (9) of the Customs Act 1969 (Market inquiry and Fall Back Method) through impugned Valuation Ruling No 1700/2022 dated 07.12.2022 without following the sequential method as provided under Section 25 of the Customs Act 1969.
ii) Whether the learned Appellate Tribunal while exercising Appellate Jurisdiction under Section 194–B (1) of the Customs Act 1969 was within jurisdiction to pass a direction that to accept as custom value the imported consignment of the respondent importer under Section 25 (1) of the Customs Act 1969.
iii) Whether on the facts and circumstances of the case, the learned Appellate Tribunal misread the relevant Section 25-A (1) of the Customs Act 1969 read with all Rules & Notifications issued for the determination of Custom value for the purpose of assessment of the imported goods.
The bench noted that prices of various types of tyres & tubes were notified in terms of Section 25 A while these values were determined under Section 25(7) i.e Deductive Value Method or commonly known as Market Inquiry read with Section 25(9) Fall Back Method.
The imported challenged the said valuation ruling before the Director General, Custom Valuation who upheld the same against which Appeals were filed.
The Appellate tribunal set aside the Valuation Rulings and directed the Collectorate concerned to accept as custom value the imported consignment of the respondent importer under Section 25 (1) of the Customs Act 1969.
The bench partly allowing the SCRA to the extent of question of law 1 & 2 in negative and in favor of appellant department while answered third question of law in favor of the appellant.
The Collectorate of Valuation was ordered to re-assess the imported goods under section 25 of Customs Act 1969.