Director General of Directorate of Customs Valuation, Samaira Nazir Khan has said that Directorate of Customs Valuation was trying its level best to facilitate the commercial importers and despite limited resources and workforce, the Directorate was striving hard to quickly resolve various issues pertaining to valuation rulings being faced by the business community of Karachi.
In this regard, a request for enhancement of workforce and resources has already been sent to Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) with a view to timely resolve pending cases and improve efficiency of the Directorate, she added.
Speaking at a meeting during her visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), she sought KCCI's advice on assessing realistic valuation rulings and also assured to look into various cases of high valuation rulings being highlighted from KCCI's platform. Additional Director Customs Valuation, Iqbal Muneeb, President KCCI, Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, Senior Vice President KCCI, Muhammad Ibrahim Kasumbi, Vice President KCCI, Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan, Chairman Customs, Valuation, Import and Anti-Smuggling Sub-Committee, Azhar Wasimpuri, Former President KCCI, Haroon Agar and KCCI Managing Committee members were also present on the occasion.
Samaira Nazir Khan was of the opinion that valuation rulings should not be raised to a level where smuggling nurtures and these rulings should not be reduced to a level where local manufacturers suffer. Responding to various concerns raised by the meeting participants, she claimed that Customs Valuation Department was not operating under the influence of manufacturers and the doors of Directorate of Customs Valuation were open for commercial importers as well who face issues due to any valuation rulings.
In response to business community's apprehensions over unnecessary delays being caused by Directorate Customs Valuations resulting in raising the cost of imported goods due to heavy demurrage and detention charges, she clarified that it was a wrong impression that delays were deliberately being caused by the Directorate only as every possible effort was being made to settle various cases as early as possible but the Directorate has to ensure that the entire procedure completes under the rules which sometimes result in delaying some cases. Commenting on various contentions pertaining to surveying leading store of the city only for assessing valuation rulings of imported goods, Samaira Nazir stated that the directorate was not just surveying leading stores but also thoroughly examines prices of imported products being sold at various wholesale markets of the city including Jodia Bazar and Juna Market etc. Earlier while welcoming the DG Customs Valuation, President KCCI Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra said that Karachi Chamber has been vocally raising its voice against the unjust valuation rulings being suffered by the members of the business community. He was of the view that high valuation rulings were being issued in connivance of the manufacturers whereas the commercial importers, who are the major stakeholders were not being taken on board during the evaluation process which creates many issues, of which the most serious issues include severe losses to national exchequer, under-invoicing and smuggling.-PR
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