HUGE Custom Duty on headphones bought from Aliexpress ( Karachi )

[kashik87]

Hope you`re all doing well.
Just wanted to see if anybody could share his experinece in a Aliexpress related matter.
I had purchased a headphone from Aliexpress worth $75 and today the postman showed at my door with a custom receipt of Rs:17,500. I was completely baffled by how they could put such a outrageous duty on this and did not accept the package and have decided to go to custom clearence house karachi for this.

Any idea how these idiots calculte the duty on package and what if I dont want to pay this duty how could the package be returned back to the sender ?

if anyone could help guide on this that would be great.

Thanks

[capsat]

headphones are unde PCT 8518.3000 customs duty is approx 20% plus 17.5% sales tax

US$1 = 156 x 75 = 11700
PKRs 11700 value
20% = 2340.00
17.5% = 410.00

Maximum they can charge is 2850 - 3000

after holidays pay a visit to International Mail office behind Mitha Ram Hostel at GPO Karachi.

ask babu sab to help you. You may end up paying 2000 only. Before you pay make sure to check if the parcel is intact and items are not stolen under ' examination ' process.

[kashik87]

Thank you for your detailed reply.
I was also looking at the FBR sit for duty calculation and saw they are currently putting the USD value at Rs:153 PKR
And the bill I received was a combination of the following factors:

Repacking Charges
Custom Examination Fee
Custom Duty
Additional Custom Duty
Sales Tax
Additional Sales Tax
Regulatory Duty
Income tax

So the grand total of Rs:17,500 was a combination of this.

[capsat]

play nice & cool with babu on duty, wear a smile politely ask babu

'SIR ap bata dayn keya khidmat kari jai' mai tou milnay aya houn k rasta ap nai batana hai'

bargain to suit your budget then wait for magic to happen.

[xenerking]

aliexpress follows the common practice of under invoicing, if u have paid USD 100 for an item the invoice would show only USD 20...

and if the item is counterfeit, then the price of legit maybe USD 2000 while knock off cost USD 100 on aliexpress..

Custom guys checked the value of legit item and used it as base value to determine duties instead of what is written on invoice or shipping document.

hence u got custom taxes calculated as per related HS code.

repacking and examination charges would be like just 500 max.

if u know exactly abt wat u have ordered, then u can argue with customs authorities that you have paid this much amount for the item and customs should not exceed that amount in any case,
also u can clarify to them if the item is replica so that they can correct the base value for calculation.

watever u do, please choose ur course of action wisely, its Ramadan btw.

in end i would request to order from aliexpress something which is essential and not available locally to save the foreign currency reserves.

thanks

[capsat]

its Ramadan

thats why i suggested to visit after holidays

[salmanshah1]

Items worth less than 5000 are tax free or not ?

[mgalaxy3]

in end i would request to order from aliexpress something which is essential and not available locally to save the foreign currency reserves.

imran khan much brother?

this is the logic that doesn't make any sense. First, you guys or people with your thinking banned quality JDM cars for us. Completely anti-citizen policies.

Now, you think headphones are built locally?

Any electronic you buy is imported. If it is sold in a local shop, it does not mean a guy in GUjrat built it from scratch with all the materials grown locally.

whether you buy from sheeda shop or from aliexpress, it WILL be imported.

[horticulturalist]

Was these taxes from the beginning or just begin a few years ago???

[kashik87]

Playing nice doesnt really helps here. If you are coming with a reference then playing nice goes along with that. If your just another citizen they ask for bribe infornt of you I have experineced that before like 2 years ago same office.

[kashik87]

The price I paid for the product is $75 so whatever the cost Aliexpress had put on the parcel that really doesnt matter here because the customs calculations are way off chart considering the actual value of the item. Basically for a item where I paid Rs:11,500 they are charging me a duty of 17,500 and when headphones are charged at 20% which I found out at the FBR site itself how they came up with the rest of the total is unclear to me so I guess I would have to visit them after Eid.

[xenerking]

if u try and check what i mentioned above is exactly the same, meaning the custom authorities ignore the value mentioned on the parcel/invoice/shipping document and they really dont know how much is actually paid against it!

the purpose of examining the item is to judge independently how much is the item worth as per the custom examination officer, if the item is worth USD 2000 then all tax calculations will be based on that.
If you check the custom payment order, it will clearly show both the declared value and the 'assessed value' as per customs.

now the sales tax are calculated by adding up the custom duties and income tax is calculated by adding up all 3 becoming the cost of item.

anyways, upon ur visit the custom officer will justify the calculation like 1 2 3, so its better to spend 5 minutes before hand and make up ur case! Good Luck!

[xenerking]

well my message had a totally different meaning from ur understanding, however looking at the line written by you, just forget it and move on!

[kashik87]

Your right, I believe they have calculated the value as they saw fit for the item instead of what I had actually paid for it. I have had a couple of visits to the custom section at the post office prior and I have seen first hand if you argue with them on the calculation they simply send you to a different oiffice saying go get the value there and just waste your time. So lets see what happens after Eid but I would certainly not pay this much amount on the headphone and would try to return it back to the sender if we dont reach a mutual agreement on the duty fees.

Thanks for your input though.

[kashik87]

Just wanted to update this thread and conclude this discussion:

I was able to resolve the issue after meeting the concerned department and they were kind enough to reasses the valuation and reduce the duty.

Thank you all !!!

[aakbar]

Care to share the details how much value they assessed and duty you paid?

[kashik87]

Sure, it wasn't as easy and straight forward as someone had suggested but it worked out at the end.

The original duty I received were Rs: 17500 and after the reassessment the amount I paid was Rs:3500

[dms664]

How you convinced them?

[capsat]

headphones are under PCT 8518.3000 customs duty is approx 20% plus 17.5% sales tax

US$1 = 156 x 75 = 11700 PKRs 11700 value20% = 2340.0017.5% = 410.00

Maximum they can charge is 2850 - 3000

@kashik87 thats close isn't it

after the reassessment the amount I paid was Rs:3500

[muhammadraahimimran]

That's great man glad to hear ! Can u please guide who I should meet in a such case scenario like where can I visit to get my duty reassessed ?