ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court ruled that a Valuation Ruling, once validly issued, remains the applicable Customs value for assessing imported goods until it is revised or rescinded in accordance with Section 25A(4) of the Customs Act, 1969.
The judgment authored by Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui, a member of a three-member bench, said the amendment to Rule 107(a) through SRO 564(I)/2017 expressly provides that, where a Valuation Ruling issued under Section 25A exists, the ruling shall remain in force unless rescinded, modified or replaced by a new Valuation Ruling.
It further said that the statutory scheme does not support the proposition that the mere expiry of 90 days operates to extinguish an otherwise operative Valuation Ruling. The 90-day period in Rule 107(a), in its application to the valuation methodology, identifies the temporal proximity relevant to valuation data used in determining Customs value; it does not, in itself, prescribe the period for which a determination made under Section 25A remains legally operative. That question is expressly addressed by Section 25A(4), which provides that the Customs value determined under subsection (1) shall be applicable until and unless revised or rescinded by the competent authority.
The temporal operation of a determination made under Section 25A is addressed expressly by subsection (4). It provides that the Customs value determined under subsection (1), or, as the case may be, under the relevant subsequent determination, shall be applicable until and unless revised or rescinded by the competent authority.
Section 25A establishes a mechanism for the predetermination of Customs value within the broader valuation framework prescribed by Section 25. While subsection (1) requires the applicable methods under Section 25 to be followed in making such determination, subsection (2) gives legal effect to the value so determined, and subsection (4) governs its continued applicability.
The judgment noted that following the amendment, in Rule 107(a) of the Customs Rules, 2001 through SRO 564(I)/2017 dated 01.07.2017, the 90-day period continued to regulate the temporal proximity of valuation data where applicable, whereas the continued operation of a Section 25A Valuation Ruling was made dependent upon its rescission, modification or replacement by a new Valuation Ruling.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, set aside the Sindh High Court judgment dated 16-11-2022 and heard the case regarding the continued operation of a Valuation Ruling issued under Section 25A of the Customs Act, 1969, and the effect, if any, of the lapse of 90 days upon such operation.
The judgment noted that the approach adopted by the High Court in treating the expiry of 90 days as determinative of the continued applicability of the Valuation Ruling cannot be sustained. The Tribunal, and consequently the High Court, further fell in error in directing that the goods be assessed under Section 25(1) merely on the premise that the period of 90 days from the issuance of Valuation Ruling No 874 of 2016 had elapsed. Such an approach conflates the temporal requirement applicable to valuation material used in determining Customs value with the statutory duration of a Valuation Ruling once issued.
The judgment further said that in the present case, Valuation Ruling No 874 of 2016 dated 22.06.2016, thus, was in force in respect of the goods in question at the time of their assessment, and no material has been brought on record to establish that the said ruling had, before the relevant assessments, been revised or rescinded by the competent authority under the statutory hierarchy.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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