KARACHI: Eighteen Special Custom Reference Applications (SCRAs) filed by Pakistan Customs through Deputy Collector, Customs were allowed by a custom appellate bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar and Justice Arshad Hussain Khan.
The leading SCRA 138 challenged the common order passed by the Custom Appellate Tribunal’s single judge in Custom Appeal No. 439 to 457.
As per details the respondents imported consignments of Synthetic Rubber SBR 1502 and sought clearance at transactional value. The customs assessed the goods under Valuation Ruling 1091/2017 at which respondents felt aggrieved and filed the appeal. The customs appellate tribunal also allowed the appeal on ground that Valuation Ruling was two and a half year old, hence void.
In the meanwhile goods were provisionally released on payment of differential amount of duty and taxes under a new Valuation Ruling 1469/2020.
Sardar Zafar Hussain Advocate appearing for the appellate department argued that single member of the tribunal has no powers to adjudicate a matter which involves Valuation Ruling.
The SHC bench after hearing the sides and perusing the documents held that the matter should have been heard by at-least two member bench of the appellate tribunal. The bench further held that respondents at no point of time challenged the Valuation Rulings. The bench with above observations allowed the appeals setting aside the judgment of the custom appellate tribunal dated 20.01.2023.