Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs
North Block, New Delhi-110 001
Tel. : +91-11-23092849, Fax : +91-11-23092890
E-mail : vivekjohri.irs@gov.in
Vivek Johri
Chairman
DO No. 48/CH(IC)/2022
31st October, 2022
The one tool that has dramatically altered the way we work is the World Wide Web. Originally designed by Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, an English computer scientist working at the Conseil europeen pour la recherche nucleaire [European Organization for Nuclear Research] or CERN as a platform for sharing academic research, the Web drew upon technologies such as the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) for designing hypertext pages and the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for sharing them.
What was originally intended as a research tool quickly found multiple uses – from creating and sharing creative content to providing services to citizens. Subsequently, Sergey Brin and Larry Page made use of linkages between web pages to assess the quality and popularity of webpages. The result was PageRank – the original algorithm behind Google. Great things happen when people work together and collaborate.
Bureaucratic organizations, by definition, are hierarchical with clearly laid out formal structures that work on the basis of rules – mostly written. However, there is an increasing recognition that such organizations need to encourage and nurture the use of informal networks within for them to be effective.
What we need to consciously avoid is the hardening of the formal structures into silos. I encourage all of you to speak more frequently to colleagues and peers when confronted with problems that need their intervention for a resolution rather than just writing officious letter and mails and awaiting responses. This would immensely speed things up and generate mutual learning and teamwork.
Moving forward, it was an eventful week on the anti-smuggling side. Officers from the Chennai Airport Customs interdicted five Dwarf and Common spotted Cuscus, a rare species of marsupials, concealed in check-in baggage of an arriving passenger. The Cuscus were rescued and deported back to their homes.
The week gone by saw officers from the Shillong Regional Unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seize about 3.8 kgs of Heroin estimated to be valued at more than Rs. 26.66 Crore in Meghalaya. This case is another in a series of recent interdictions of contraband in the North Eastern Region and goes to show the alertness and professionalism of Customs officers.
In another remarkable case, acting on the basis of specific intelligence officers of the Tuticorin Regional Unit of DRI intercepted more than 35 kgs of foreign origin Gold, valued at more than Rs. 18 Crore, that was smuggled through the Vedhalai coast and was being transported to Madurai.
Further, in a well co-ordinated operation, officers of DRI conducting multiple simultaneous searches recovered more than 12 lakh sticks of foreign origin Cigarettes along with about two thousand pouches of Tobacco, totally valued at about Rs. 2.5 Crore. My sincere congratulations to the officers for their dedication and hard work.
Before I sign off for the week, I would like to share about a research paper authored by Sh. Mehtab Ahmed Jagil, an officer of the 2014 Batch who has coauthored a paper titled ‘Export Fraud in India’. The paper has been accepted for publication by the World Trade Review. Keep up the good work, Mehtab!
Till next week!
Yours Sincerely,
(Vivek Johri)
All Officers and Staff of Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs
