Staff Reporter :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has relaxed penalty for HS code mistake of importers in several cases, sources said.
The NBR issued directives saying it has taken several decisions to make all of customs related activities business friendly.
It issued the directives on April 2 saying it has directed earlier through two separate letters about imposing penalties of section 156 (1) of The Customs Act 1969 in details.
Now, the NBR said, recent directives to make its activities more business friendly.
At its latest directives, the NBR said, if the importers import any product through any custom house or station in first time and if its description of tariff, art number or part number, brand, model, size, colour, capacity and country of origin found correct and if those make clear idea about the item and if its Harmonized System Code (HS code) of Bangladesh Customs Tariff found right till six digits then it would not be considered as a false statement.
The directives, however, said that in such case, the corrected HS code and Customs Procedure Code (CPC) will be fixed as per the corrected descriptions of the imported products and the tariff also imposed as per that assessment.
The NBR directives said that in case of first time importing, the incorrect CPC would not be considered as false information. But in case of wrong doing beyond the first time importing, it would be considered as false statement. It said that if assessment committee of custom house or classification committee of NBR clarifies declares that the earlier decided HS code or CPC of the product is not correct which were imported earlier through any custom house or station after clearing tariffs, would not be considered as false statement.
If any importer import product next time without using correct HS code or CPC or if any traders did same wrong doing repeatedly, would be considered as false declaration as per Section 32. The issue will also be applicable in case of partial shipment.
In such case, the tariff would be assessed further.
NBR relaxes penalty for HS code mistake
