Glass ware/porcelain ware: Customs’ values on imports from seven countries issued

ISLAMABAD: The Directorate General of Customs Valuation, Karachi has issued new Customs values on the import of glass ware/porcelain ware from China, Iran, UAE, Thailand, Egypt, Korea and Indonesia for accurate assessment of duties and taxes.

The directorate has implemented new values through issued a valuation ruling 1823 of 2023, here on Tuesday.

Earlier, the Customs values of glass ware/porcelain ware was determined vide valuation ruling 1774 of 2023. The importers filed review petitions, but the said valuation ruling was upheld by the directorate, negating the stance of the complainants.

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Thereafter, the importers filed an appeal against the subject Order-in-Revision before the Customs Appellate Tribunal that set aside the impugned Valuation Ruling and the Order-in Revision by the Director General of Customs Valuation.

As there was no Valuation Ruling in field after Tribunal’s order, this directorate initiated an exercise for re-determination of Customs values of subject goods under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1959 based on an analysis of import data and changes in international market trends.

The issues pertaining to the valuation of subject goods were deliberated upon in detail in the relevant meeting of stakeholders.

The importers argued that the Customs values of subject goods determined vide the last valuation ruling subject goods were exorbitantly high which were not acceptable by the importers. They opined that their declared values are actual transactional values, therefore, should be considered for re-determination of Customs values.

Some of the importers submitted their export GDs, invoices and BLs to corroborate their stance. Importers also claimed that the local manufacturer had announced a 40 percent discount on their products when the said ruling was set aside which points towards lover value of instant goods.

The importers were asked to provide evidence of this discount but they failed to do the same. They also submitted tint the aspect of reduced freight rates from China should also be considered at the time of re-determination of customs values of subject goods.

The participants engaged in import of subject goods from Turkey recorded their grievances over inordinately high increase in customs value of subject goods of Turkish origin in the ruling and requested for rationalizing the same. The viewpoints of importers were heard in detail and were evaluated to arrive at Customs values of the subject goods.

The viewpoints of importers were analyzed in detail. The scrutiny of clearance data has revealed that after issuance of last valuation ruling, the importers have got the subject goods cleared as per the said valuation ruling in more than 500 Goods Declarations (GDs).

Resultantly, 90 days’ data contained significant evidences of clearances as per the last Valuation Ruling. As pointed out by the importers, freight rates showed a downward trend since issuance of previous ruling.

For further (comparative) analysis, international publication on China’s Ceramic Tableware Export, (2023-2022), issued by China Research and Intelligence Co Ltd, was accessed which has reflected that average export price of China’s porcelain tableware has increased from USD 2.7/kg (2018) to USD 3.9/kg (2022).

In this publication, export values of porcelain tableware (from China to a number of other countries) were also analyzed. Therefore, the new Customs values for glass ware/porcelain ware shall be assessed to duty/taxes on the Customs values mentioned, it added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023