Directorate General Customs Valuation (DGCV) on Tuesday revised the customs value of Sodium Alginate under section 25(9) of the Customs Act. 1969. According to the revised valuation, representations were received from commercial importers for determination of customs value of Sodium Alginate afresh. Therefore, the meeting with all stakeholders including importers, Pakistan Chemical and Dyes Merchant Association (PCDMA) and representatives from clearance Collectorates, was called on April 7, 2017 to discuss the current international prices of the subject items.

The commercial importers were of the view that the prices of subject item depended upon the Centi Poise/Second (CPS) values hence it was requested to determine the prices as per CPS value which was duly supported by the PCDMA. The view point of all participants was heard in detail and considered to arrive at Customs value of Sodium Alginate different CPS value.

After getting no results by adopting valuation methods, transaction value method, identical / similar goods value method, deductive value method, the DGCV finally examined PRAL database, market information and international prices through Web. Later, all the information gathered was analysed for determination of customs value of the subject items. Consequently, the fall back method as provided under section 25(9) of the Customs Act 1969 was applied arriving assessable customs values of the Sodium Alginate, which was as follow.

Sodium Alginate up to 300 CPS (Other than Pharma/Food Grade) origin from China is now assessed at US$5.30 per KG and Sodium Alginate above 300 CPS (Other than Pharma/Food Grade) origin from China is cleared at US$ 7.00 per KG while Sodium Alginate Pharmaceutical / food grades have been excluded due to higher variation of the values.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017