Guides · Valuation
A ruling decides your value before your invoice does.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026
A valuation ruling is a value the Directorate General of Customs Valuation has already worked out for a category of goods, and once it exists it is what your consignment is assessed against, not your invoice. If your invoice is genuinely higher than the ruling, the higher figure applies. If you think the ruling is wrong for your goods, there is a review petition to the Director-General within thirty days of the ruling, decided within sixty, and an appeal to the Customs Appellate Tribunal after that. Both are won or lost on the documents behind the price, not on the argument made about it.
What a ruling actually does
Section 25 of the Customs Act sets out how a value is worked out consignment by consignment: transaction value first, then identical goods, similar goods, and on down the sequence. Section 25A lets the Directorate General of Customs Valuation skip that sequence for a whole category of goods at once. Where declared values across an item are running below what the market is showing, the Director of Customs Valuation determines the value once, for everybody importing that description, and issues it as a valuation ruling.
From that point the ruling is the value your goods are assessed against, not a figure you argue down at the counter. It stays applicable until it is revised or rescinded by the competent authority, which is why the review and appeal routes below exist: a ruling is not permanent, but it does not expire on its own either.
What a higher declared value does
A ruling sets a floor, not a ceiling. If the value on your invoice, or the value retrieved from the consignment's own documents, is higher than the ruling's figure, the higher value is what gets charged. Nobody is assessed below the ruling, but a genuinely higher declared price is not overridden by it.
There is a sharper edge to undervaluation than most importers expect. Under section 25C, where a Collector of Customs is satisfied a declared value is not the real transaction value, a third party can be invited to buy the goods outright at a substantially higher figure, backed by a pay order for a quarter of the offer. You are then given the chance to clear at that higher value yourself, and if you do not take it within seven days, the goods can be taken over on payment of your own declared value plus five percent. It is not the usual outcome of a valuation query, but it is written into the Act as the backstop against a value nobody believes.
The challenge route: two forums, not one
| Stage | Forum | Window | Section |
|---|---|---|---|
| The ruling itself | Directorate General of Customs Valuation | Issued for a category of goods; stands until revised or rescinded | Section 25A |
| Review petition | Director-General of Valuation | Filed within thirty days of the ruling; the Director-General must decide within sixty days of filing | Section 25D |
| Appeal | Customs Appellate Tribunal, a special bench of one judicial and one technical member | Filed within thirty days of the review order being communicated | Section 194A(1)(d) |
What actually wins a review or an appeal
A petition succeeds or fails on what is in the file, not on how it is argued. This is what the file needs to hold.
The invoice tied to the money
The commercial invoice matched to the letter of credit or the bank remittance for that shipment, not just the invoice on its own.
A history at the same price
Prior consignments of the same specification cleared at the value you are defending, where they exist. One shipment is an assertion; a pattern is evidence.
The supplier relationship on paper
A contract or a standing price list from the supplier, showing the price was arrived at commercially and not adjusted for the declaration.
Freight and insurance as paid, not assumed
Actual freight and insurance figures for the shipment, because a value built on assumed transport costs is one of the first things a review looks at.
A specification that does not match the ruling
Where the argument is that the ruling does not cover your goods at all, the technical specification has to show that difference line by line against the ruling's own description.
What the Tribunal appeal costs to file
The review petition to the Director-General carries no filing fee. An appeal to the Customs Appellate Tribunal does.
- Tribunal appeal fee, filed by a companyRs 20,000on per appeal · Section 194A(3)
- Tribunal appeal fee, filed by other than a companyRs 5,000on per appeal · Section 194A(3)
Checked 13 September 2026 against Federal Board of Revenue — Customs Act, 1969, section 194A. Rates move at the budget and by SRO in between, so confirm the current figure with us before you price a consignment on it.
Not every disputed value is worth challenging. If the gap between your invoice and the ruling is small, or your goods plainly match the ruling's own description, a review petition is thirty days spent to lose it. We will tell you that before we file it, not after the Director-General does.
Questions
What importers ask us about a valuation ruling
Contact
Tell us what is coming.
Give us the product, the port and roughly when the vessel is due, and we will tell you what the clearance involves and what it will cost.