The Directorate General of Customs Valuation Karachi while taking major initiatives to revise customs values of imported items, stressed upon the manufacturers to actively participate in meetings relating to the valuation rulings to submit their viewpoint on commercial importer's attempts to revise valuations on the imported consignments.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Thursday that the role of local manufacturers is very important in finalisation of the valuation rulings. Local manufacturers must participate in the meetings to counter the comments of the commercial importers for revision of the values of imported consignments.
Directorate General has initiated an exercise to develop database values for different items which are prone to under invoicing. Different sources will be used to populate the Database. The database values will be made available to the screens of assessing officers for a better and well informed decision making. With enough information on this database, it can be used for generating valuation alerts for the assessing officers in case of significant divergence from the database values.
Second initiative is to protect the local industry by fixing correct import values. As a result many valuation rulings have been revised like Valuation Ruling on shoes was revised after 2012 and increased by 150 -350%. In case of furniture the values were enhanced by 150 to 300%. Similarly stationary rubber has been enhanced by 300%-500%. Whole stationary items are being revised. Similarly in last few months more than 50 rulings have been issued. In case of readymade garments the value of men's suit, jackets, women suits, boys and girls garments were fixed on lower side. The DG withdrew the ruling and ordered an inquiry. New ruling is under way and shall be issued in June, 2016.
Official said that a single eight digit level PCT heading very frequently contains items with different specifications which have significant bearing on valuation besides other issues relating to exemptions and concessions especially relating to items manufactured in Pakistan. Recognising this reality, a CGO was issued for creating 12 digit headings for statistical and other purposes. However, no headway could be made to introduce description at 12 digit level in the WeBOC system in last two years. The description and specifications are textual in nature, therefore, not readable by the system. Resultantly system based decision-making on account of this dependency cannot move forward.
If provisions in the WeBOC system are made for 12 digit PCT heading, gradually and steadily, all valuation rulings and database values would be populated on this 12-digit PCT. It will not only increase system based clearance but at the same time, support assessing officers in taking valuation relating decisions amongst specific PCTs at 8-digits. It may be clarified here that the tariff shall remain at 8 digits (the First Schedule to the Customs Act, 1969 shall not be disturbed). Moreover, importers will also be shown 12-digit PCT with specifications so that at the time of preparation of GD, correct declarations are made and system can generate alert for AOs and officers. This would require, inter alia, Directorate General of Reforms & Automation (Dte. General R&A) to give due priority to the refinement and amendments of valuation related modules as proposed by this Directorate General from time to time, they said.
Sources said that if provisions in the WeBOC system are made for 12 digit PCT heading, gradually and steadily, all valuation rulings and database values would be populated on this 12-digit PCT. It will not only increase system based clearance but at the same time, support assessing officers in taking valuation relating decisions amongst specific PCTs at 8-digits. Moreover, importers will also be shown 12-digit PCT with specifications so that at the time of preparation of GD, correct declarations are made and system can generate alert for AOs and officers.
To convert the WeBOC system to 12 digits only for statistical/valuation and other purposes in such a manner that it will help incorporate Valuation Rulings (VR) and Valuation Database (VDB) in the system at 12 digit level. However the tariff shall remain at 8 digits (the First Schedule to the Customs Act, 1969 shall not be disturbed). In this regard, the VDB screen for uploading of valuation database shall be up to 12 digits and different from the VR screen. Two link buttons, one each for VR and VDB, shall be provided at the assessment screen and upon clicking the link button, a separate screen shall open, which shall contain VR/VDB with search criteria, as the case may be, sources said.
Upon filing of GD, screen should display 12 digit level descriptions and it may reflect VR/VDB values to the filer. All VRs and VDB values should be visible to importers with search criteria. It will be made mandatory upon declarants to file GDs by incorporating descriptions at 12 digit level. The AOs to also get alerts at 8 digit level that a particular heading may contain VR or VDB.
Moreover, the GDs wherein there is difference in declared values and VR/VDB values, shall not be cleared through the Green Channel. The system should generate alerts if the Declared Value is less than the VDB/VR values; upon opening of GD by AO, he should receive following remarks in red, "Check Value Aspect." Simultaneously system should send alert to Additional Collector if the difference between declared value vis-à-vis VR/VDB values is greater than 30%, sources said.
A provision to create a statement of all such GDs by AC/DC/ADC, for a specific period, by incorporating details such as GD No & date, DV, AV, VDB/VR value, and their difference, GD out of charge by (With Name/designation etc), date and time of out of charge and all other relevant information, may be provided in the system.
Sources added that the data reflected in "View PCT history" is of wide range and have enormous variations, so some AOs tend to take advantage of lowest values available in the system, which usually are irrelevant. So Data reflected in "View PCT history" shall be shown after trimming ie, for some cases it may be arranged that 10 percent of the lowest values shall not be visible to AOs.
Furthermore, a complete set up and mechanism is required to determine values for the database and linking international values with the imported items. A valuation hall is required where valuation groups may be formed. Each group may continuously obtain values of important commodities (having large import value and prone to under invoicing). The values are reviewed at two tiers of officers and valuation database is populated or updated, as the case may be. For this purpose 15-20 Superintendents/DS/inspectors of old Central Excise and Land Customs (now redundant in IRS) may be deputed in this Directorate General for one year. Auditors and senior auditors, in the IRS, with minimal workload, may also be considered for deputation to this Directorate General.
The directorate has started work on database and values of many items have been finalised along with transformation of values at 12-digit PCT with specifications. As soon as the enabling screens and amendments are made in the WeBOC system, this office would start populating the database as explained in the foregoing paras, they added.