Directorate General Customs Valuation (DGCV) has increased the customs duty of 'Split Air Conditioners' under section 25(9) of the Customs Act, 1969. According to official details, DGVC was of the view that the valuation ruling required revision in line with the prevailing prices in the international market. Therefore, an exercise has been done for determination of customs values of all types of air conditioners.
For the purpose, meetings were convened with stakeholders last month in order to determine the customs duty of the said commodity. Before meeting, the importers were requested to furnish the relevant documents in this regard. However, no documents were submitted to the Directorate on or even before the said scheduled meetings.
During the course of the meeting, the stakeholders claimed that the values of split air conditioners of China origin actually reduced in the international market as compared to the values determined in the existing valuation ruling therefore, the values needed downward revision. They were requested to submit import invoices, sales tax invoices, literature, evidences and other relevant requisite import documents in support of their contentions but they remained unable to provide any document or evidence to substantiate their contentions.
Later, the valuation methods given in section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969 were followed to arrive at customs values of air conditioners. Transaction value method provided in section 25 (1) was found inapplicable owing to wide variation in the values being declared to the customs. Identical/similar goods value methods provided in section 25 (5) & (6) were examined for applicability to the valuation issue in the instant case which provided some reference values of the subject goods but the same could not be exclusively relied upon due to wide variation in declared values of subject goods. Thereafter, market enquiry as envisaged under section 25(7) of the Customs Act, 1969, was conducted. For the purpose, different markets were surveyed repeatedly.
The computed value method as provided in section 25(8) of the Customs Act, 1969, could not be applied as the conversion costs from constituent material at the country of export were not available. Online values of subject goods were also obtained. All the information so gathered was evaluated and analysed for the purpose of determination of customs values. Consequently, the customs values of different types of air conditioners have been increased under section 25(9) of the Customs Act, 1969.