The Directorate General of Customs Valuation Karachi has fixed new customs values on the import of different varieties of fresh dates from Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to a new valuation ruling issued by the directorate on Friday, the customs values have been revised on the import of different types of fresh dates including Zahidi, Muzafati, Rabbi/Piarom, Ajwa and Amber.
The reduction of 8 percent shall be admissible on above determined values on account of freight charges, if goods are imported through land route and thereafter actual land freight charges incurred for respective land import station shall be added, directorate added.
Earlier, the Customs values of Fresh Dates were determined under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969 vide Valuation Ruling No.1749/2023. An exercise has been undertaken by this Directorate to re-determine the Customs values afresh in line with values prevalent in the international market.
The assessed values in similar goods import data Fresh Dates of various types for the last 90 days of various origins reflected values as per previous VR No.1749/2023. However, Declared Values (DV) of similar goods had showed consistent variations. Hence, this method was also found inapplicable.
The market enquiry was also conducted but could yield results to some extent because of variation in market prices, ruling said.
Dates are one of the healthiest foods. The government should eliminate or minimise duty on their import till Pakistan itself has produced quality dates for local distribution and consumption.
FBR has to distinguish between ‘healthy’ and ‘luxury’ items. Chocolates fall in the healthy category as do fish products and preparations. This holds true also for health supplements as well as medicines. Till we have achieved self-sufficiency in production of all these mentioned items with a certain degree of quality, there should be no hinderance in their import.
Bhai they fixed an ITP value , not imposed any new tax . Read carefully again