950803

Appma urges govt

to ensure

transparency in

valuation system

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: President of All Pakistan Paper Merchants Association (APPMA), Southern Circle, Tabassum Khurshid has demanded of the government to make it sure that PSI companies were operating within the moral and legal parameters of the mandate given to them.

In a press statement on Wednesday, he said that Finance Ministry should ensure that method of valuation by PSI companies was transparent and in case they were found guilty of overstepping their mandate, they should be asked to pack up and go home.

He further demanded that PSI companies be made to agree that if an importer challenged the valuation and wanted to surrender the goods, PSI company should accept it as provided in the Customs Act, and if importer challenged under valuation, PSI company should undertake to provide the evidence of price indicated in the CRF.

He said that erratic and excessive valuation by PSI companies was having adverse effects on export industry as high cost of raw materials and inflated variable cost made exports incompetitive. Traders were also reluctant to make imports due to uncertainty in price valuation, which is encouraging smuggling, he added.

The business community in the country seriously doubts the impartiality of PSI companies and are of the belief that appointment of these comapnies is designed to destroy Pakistan's economy.