FBR Revises Customs Value on Import of Solid Surface Material

Directorate General of Customs Valuation Karachi has revised customs values on the import of solid surface materials or solid surface sheets structure from China, Korea and USA. The imported items included Counter Top Sheets/ Artificial Stone Sheets/Artificial Marble Sheets/Solid Surface Sheets / Cast Acrylic Sheets of Acrylic Polymers & Unsaturated Polyesters. In this regard, the directorate has issued a new ruling number 1891 of 2024. According to the ruling, customs values were determined vide Valuation Ruling No.1679/2022. A complaint in Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) was filed and accordingly Directorate General of Customs Valuation was directed to dispose of the complainant’s application after providing him the opportunity of hearing for the determination of customs values of Counter Top Sheets / Artificial Stone Sheets / Artificial Marble Sheets / Surface Sheets / Cast Acrylic Sheets of Acrylic Polymers & Unsaturated Polyesters. Therefore, an exercise was initiated by the Directorate to determine the same. During the meeting, the representatives of M/s Engineering Services argued that their imported goods i.e. Counter Top Sheets / Artificial Stone Sheets / Artificial Marble Sheets / Solid Surface Sheets of Unsaturated Polyesters do not fall under the ambit of existing HS codes as mentioned in the VR on the basis of constituent raw material. Moreover, they contested that the market prices of their goods (composed of significant percentage of unsaturated polyesters primarily) are much lower than those made up of Acrylic polymers. Therefore, the classification needs modification keeping in view the composition of goods in question. Representative of M/s. Prisma Tech @vt) Ltd; a local manufacturer of the said product also agreed with the same. For this purpose, Ninety days’ data has also been retrieved and the same has been scrutinized, Subsequently, market inquiry has been conducted and examined. The new customs values have been determined on the import of Counter Top Sheets / Solid Surface Sheets / Artificial Marble Sheets / Artificial Stone Sheets / Cast Acrylic Sheets of Acrylic Polymers. (Corian) for assessment of duties and taxes at the import stage.