LHC removes duty on more than 700 steel items

LAHORE: Good news for the importers of over 700 listed items, including hot rolling steel, flat rolled products of alloy steel, tubes, pipes, allow profiles, wire of iron and some dairy products as the Lahore High Court set aside Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) for regulatory duty for being issued without lawful authority Tuesday. There would be no regulatory duty even on import of waste and scrap of tinned iron or steel, turnings, shavings, chips, milling waste, sawdust, filings, trimmings and stamping, whether or not in bundles which had earlier been imposed on these items.

Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court set aside the SRO for being issued without lawful authority. The Federal Board of Revenue last year in October had got approved SRO No 1035 (1)/ 2017 exercising the powers conferred upon under sub-section (3) of Section 18 of Customs Act, 1969.

M/S Global Steel had moved the petition submitting that the FBR had imposed ‘regulatory duty’ on import of various steel items vide its Serial No 444 to 458 of SRO No 1035 (1)/ 2017. The company’s lawyer argued that question arose that whether approval of federal minister in charge for levy of ‘regulatory duty’ on imported goods was competent under the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973, read-with judgment of apex court in the case of Al-Mustafa impex.

He also presented a copy of the SRO approved by the ministry, showed its content. The counsel said that the federal minister was not empowered to approve for issuance of notification to impose regulatory duty and this act was illegal, unlawful and without lawful authority, hence, the impugned notification is liable to be quashed.

He argued that it was clear the decision of imposing regulatory duty had not been exercised for any valid reasons.