Rejoinder, our reply
Mongla Customs House has sent a rejoinder to a report headlined "CAR IMPORT VIA CTG, MONGLA PORTS -- Value differs, so does tariff" published in The Daily Star on April 21.
Following is the text of the rejoinder:
In the case of imported brand New Honda CR-V, 1496cc vehicles, the transaction value or similar transaction value of the identical product is considered as per section 25 of the Customs Act, 1969.
In this case, the transaction value could not be found. For this reason, duty assessment and valuation of goods were done temporarily based on the deductive method in line with the Customs Valuation Rules 2000.
Chattogram Customs House assessed the value of the car based on its database. It assessed value of the car at $21,144 per unit on the basis of the deductive method.
The reason behind higher value of the car was that Saal Sabeel Cars imported two cars and that were imported from a third country. The assessed duty for the vehicle imported through Chattogram Port was higher than that of Mongla Port as the importer, Saal Sabeel Cars, imported vehicles on a limited scale from a third country.
And because of the import from a third country, freight, dealer margin, mid-trader cost and margin, and documentary charges will be added.
On the other hand, the cars imported through Mongla Port came directly from the producing country and in large quantity. For this reason, import cost is less.
Even after that, because of differences arising out of determination of prices of the cars, the consignments were released on a temporary assessment of duty based on bank guarantee of payable duty and taxes on the gap between the last assessed value of $16,340 by the Mongla Customs and the assessed value of $21,144 by Chattogram Customs House in line with Section 81 of the Customs Act, 1969. The government revenue is fully protected in this case.
A letter has been sent to the National Board of Revenue to determine the actual price of these imported vehicles in this regard.
A comparative analysis with other customs shows that the two types of price information published in the newspaper are baseless. It is unfortunate to publish an unsubstantiated report on an issue that is under official process.
OUR REPLY
As per Customs Valuation Rules 2000, Mongla Customs has assessed prices $16,435 per vehicle following the deductive method as no transaction value or the value of similar goods was found in the database.
The Chattogram Customs House assessed the value of the car of the same model at $21,144, following the deductive value method. The tariff was 22 per cent higher than the tariff calculated by the Mongla Customs.
The deductive value of goods is determined based on the retail price in the domestic market. In this case, the difference in the value fixed by the two customs is big.
Our report was based on the data of both customs houses. We stand by our report.