ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has empowered the Directorate General of Customs Valuation to prevent flight of capital and trade-based money laundering taking place through misinvoicing of exports.
The FBR, Friday, issued SRO 503(I)/2021 to specify the functions of the Directorate General of Customs Valuation.
The agency would focus on under invoicing of imports and also identify cases of overinvoicing of imports of low-duty or exempt items, and misinvoicing of exports to prevent flight of capital or trade-based money laundering and to convey such information to the concerned formations. The Directorate General of Customs Valuation would develop and maintain a modern and effective system for valuation of imported and exported goods. It would ensure uniformity and neutrality of valuation practices across the country and improve voluntary compliance by trade and industry regarding proper declaration of value.
It would also safeguard revenue by providing assistance and advice to the field formations and support field formations in preventing the flight of capital and trade-based money laundering through misinvoicing.
The Directorate General of Customs Valuation shall consist of the following officers: Director general of valuation; directors of valuation; additional directors; deputy/or assistant directors; Principal appraisers and valuation officers and appraisers or officers with any other designation.
The responsibilities of the Directorate General of Customs Valuation shall be to ensure that the laws and rules support the delivery of an effective valuation programme, by making recommendations to the Federal Board of Revenue about legal and procedural changes as required from time to time.
The DG would develop suitable outreach programs for trade and industry for creating awareness about customs valuation regulations and record keeping requirements with the objective of improving voluntary compliance.
The DG would develop suitable training modules in consultation with Directorate General of Training and Research focused at providing necessary skills from basic level to advanced level to officers and officials working in all relevant functions including Model Customs Collectorates, Post Clearance Audit and Valuation Directorates.
The responsibilities of the Directorate General of Customs Valuation also included to determine the value of goods under section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969 for issuing valuation ruling and to carry out final determination of value in cases of provisional assessment under section 81 of the Customs Act referred by the field formations.
The directorate would develop and maintain a center for issuing advance rulings on valuation in accordance with international best practices.
It would provide input to the risk management committee on valuation-related risk parameters and checks, and also establish two-way information exchange system with Directorate General of Post Clearance Audit for valuation-related issues and risks.
The directorate would build, maintain and update valuation information systems and to support the development of fully automated valuation modules in the Customs Computerized System for proper valuation of goods in accordance with Customs Valuation Agreement or World Trade Organization and regularly obtain reference price data from accredited publications, official price lists, websites, through market enquiries as well as findings of Post Clearance Audit and other authentic sources, and to make such data available to field formations through the customs computerised system; to carry out proactive monitoring of valuation of goods imported into and exported from the country vis-à-vis international price trends, conduct analysis and undertake sector-wise studies of items prone to misinvoicing and to advise the field formations regarding any abnormalities in valuation during clearances.
The responsibilities of the Directorate General of Customs Valuation also included maintaining effective liaison with Pakistan missions abroad for the purpose of valuation enquiries, with relevant valuation committees of the World Trade Organization and the World Custom Organization and with foreign Customs administrations through the FBR, the notification added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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