August 2, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-us-Sani 3, 1424

ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), Justice (Retd) Saleem Akhtar has asked the CBR to decide fair value of Chinese television sets so that customs duty could be fixed.

The FTO in this regard has recommended to the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to direct controller of customs valuation to obtain reliable export prices of television sets from the Chinese suppliers.

He said that compliance be reported to the office within 45 days of this order.

The decision was taken on the complaint of Prime International, Lahore who alleged that CBR through a letter had arbitrarily fixed the value of 117 items including colour TVs imported from China.

A division bench of Lahore High Court had already declared the letter without jurisdiction and of no legal effect.

The complainant expressed disagreement with the provisional value of $105 for assessment of 21” Chinese colour TV. He stated that the tax authorities should revert the price to the earlier price, which was fixed at $76.50 per piece for import of 21” TV from China and there was no jurisdiction to apply higher value.

He also contended that the local manufacturers were deliberately over-invoicing the imports of kits of TV sets with a view to justifying their allegation that the imports of TV sets were underinvoiced.

The customs department was assessing the TV sets imported from China at $58.50 for 14” colour TV and $76.50 for 21” colour TV before the issuance of CBR letter.