All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association (APDMA) has approached Finance Minister Ishaq Dar against Directorate General Customs Valuation Karachi for unilaterally changing mechanism of customs valuation on imported vehicles, resulting in stuck-up of 200 vehicles at Karachi. According to a communication of Chairman APDMA HM Shahzad to the finance minister here on Thursday, as a result of wrong customs valuation by the directorate, customs value of various models of imported vehicles above 1800CC has been changed illegally to increase duty from Rs 200,000 to Rs 1,500,000 per vehicle.
The APDMA accused that the officers of Directorate General (Customs Valuation) are not acting under the law but acting according to personal whims. In this way they are impeding the collection of revenue at this juncture instead of assisting the government to achieve its economic goals.
The APDMA opined that the assessment of customs duty on imported vehicles (new or secondhand) has been finalised since year 2008 by consensus of all the stakeholders, including assemblers and All Pakistan Motors Dealers Association. The customs valuations have been issued since 2008 to 2016 on the principle whereby the FOB would be arrived at by deducting 20 per cent from MSRP on account of local taxation on the domestic motor vehicles being imported into Pakistan. However, in the latest customs Valuation 1051/2017 dated 21.02.2017 there were certain glaring mistakes. These mistakes pointed out by APMDA to the Customs Valuation Director. However, errors were not rectified.
The APMDA filed review before DG (Customs Valuation) under Section 25D of the Customs Act, 1969. It is legally settled position when an appeal is filed with higher officer, the lower officer against whose order the Appeal is filed, cannot change or alter his original order. However, before the DG Customs Valuation could issue any review order, the Director issued a letter on 18.04.2017 to modify his Valuation Ruling No 1051/2017, thus circumventing any future orders of the director general. The APMDA met DG (Customs Valuation) on 26.04.2017 to get it rectified. However, the deputy director and director customs valuation did not agree to withdraw the illegal order which adds 5 per cent loading on the calculation in vague. This new un-agreed, unilateral mechanism suggest new formula of arriving FOB value of imported vehicles by deducting 20 per cent (consumption and other local taxes in country of importation) but by adding loading of 5 per cent loading.
The APMDA said that the mechanism of customs valuation for imported vehicles has been changed unilaterally without any consensus with stakeholders. Consequently, the customs value of various models of imported vehicles above 1800CC has been changed illegally to increase duty from Rs 200,000 to Rs 1,500,000 per vehicle. About 200 vehicles are struck up at the port and pipeline. The revenue involved in these vehicles is to the tune of Rs 3 billion.
It is requested that illegal letter of director, No Misc/05/2008-VIIIA/1084 dated 18.04.2017, may be ordered to be withdrawn and DG Customs Valuation be asked to hear and dispose of petition on merit in the interest of natural justice, HM Shahzad added.
Comments
Comments are closed.