KARACHI - Director General of Directorate of Customs Valuation, Samaira Nazir Khan has said that Directorate of Customs Valuation was trying its best to facilitate the commercial importers.
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), Samaira Nazir Khan sought Karachi Chamber’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. Samaira Nazir Khan was of the opinion that valuation rulings should not be raised to a level where smuggling nurtures and these rulings should also 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.
She said 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.