Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs
North Block, New Delhi-110001
Tel. No.: +91-11-23092849, Fax : +91-11-23092890
DO No. 17/CH(IC)/2021
28th March, 2022
A few days ago, I received a folder bearing impeccable calligraphic writing. The balance and stability of the letters juxtaposed against the poetic fluidity of movement was a kind of music not for the ears, but for the eyes.
It reminded me of an incident from Steve Jobs life. Jobs dropped out of college in 6 months, but stayed on campus for another 18 months, often dropping in on classes that took his fancy. One such class was on calligraphy. He learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes typography great. He found it beautiful, historical and artistically subtle in a way that science perhaps could never be.
At that time, none of this had any practical application in his life. However, 10 years later, when designing the first Macintosh computer, his team designed it all into the Mac. His company went on to set ever higher benchmarks in the form and design of computing devices. He is reported to have said that if he had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never have had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.
One can’t connect the dots looking forward; one can only connect them looking backward. So we have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in our future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever just never stop learning and exploring.
Keeping alive the spirit of continued learning, the Directorate General of Systems & Data Management is organizing the first ADVAIT Hackathon on Data Analytics on the 30th of April and 1st of May, 2022. The event is expected to provide a competitive, creative and collaborative environment for officers to show case their data analytics capabilities and provide a spur to fostering a data-driven culture. It is also a means of encouraging our officers to find solutions to complex but common problems we face in our day-to-day work. This is an excellent initiative and I hope officers participate enthusiastically. My Congratulations to Pr. DG, Directorate General of Systems & Data Management and his team for this initiative.
They say, Borders divide; Customs Connect! The adage is perhaps a touch more relevant in our immediate neighborhood. Last week, Member (Customs) led a delegation from Indian Customs for the 13th India-Bangladesh Joint Group of Customs Talks held in Dhaka. The discussions covered the entire gamut of Customs cooperation and the possible areas for future co-operation.
The timely disposal of stocks of seized gold lying with our field formations has been a priority area for the Board. I am happy to report that in the last three months alone over 3500 kg of seized Gold has been deposited with RBI. This has resulted in realization of more than Rs. 1600 Cr. The process involved close co-ordination between the field formations, the Reserve Bank of India and the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd. My sincere Congratulations to the field formations and to Member (Investigation) and his team for their hard work in first devising a procedure and then streamlining its implementation.
With a view to enhance the interface with members of the trade, Tuglakabad Customs (Export) Commissionerate launched a dedicated facility for receipt of grievances, requests or queries related to issues such as status of IGST refund, post export amendment of Shipping Bills, transmission of Shipping Bills to the DGFT, registration of AD Codes etc. The initiative was crafted after a careful analysis of CPGRAMS, RTI applications and mails etc. FAQs centered on the issues raised have also been prepared and have been uploaded as a ready reckoner. An internal SOP for handling such queries has also been put into place. Kudos to Commissioner, Customs (Export) Commissionerate, Tughlakabad and her team for the initiative.
As I sign off this week, I would like to congratulate Administrative Officers (CGST & Directorates) who were recently promoted to the grade of Chief Accounts Officers (CGST & Directorates).
Till next week!
Yours Sincerely,
(Vivek Johri)
All Officers and Staff of Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs
