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 : [email protected]
29th August, 2022
DO No. 39/CH(IC)/2022
Dear Colleague,
This week I am reminded of a painting – A View of Delft – perhaps Vermeer’s only significant landscape. At first glance it is just a bucolic landscape of the port city of Delft. However, as is the case with much of his work, there are layers upon layers. The water we look at is actually the city’s harbor, that connects it to Rotterdam and eventually out to the North Sea and out to the then expanding new world!
On one side are a couple of Herring-Buss boats, their sails struck indicating that they are under repair, a group of people in fine attire stand at the near bank of the harbor, perhaps indicating the prosperity of the trading town. Many believe that at its heart, this painting captures the prosperity of Delft, caused primarily on account of trade.
For us at CBIC it has been our constant endeavor to facilitate and foster trade. As part of the PM Gati Shakti – National Master Plan for Multi-modal Connectivity, we attained full compliance with the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) well before the stipulated timelines. This has led to standardization and rationalization of regulatory procedures for cross border trade, thus reducing EXIM logistics costs.
Further, comprehensive guidelines have been issued for setting up of Inland Container Depots and Container Freight Stations to promote the establishment of new facilities around dedicated railway freight corridors. Similarly, initiatives such as allowing export of goods from Bangladesh to India in containers returning empty after delivering Indian exports has been facilitated. These steps will significantly reduce logistics costs while promoting seamless multimodal connectivity.
Moving ahead, the week gone by saw Customs House Laboratory, Goa under the Central Revenues Control Laboratory (CRCL) being granted the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accreditation for Chemical Testing. This is the tenth revenue laboratory to receive such an accreditation. Sincere congratulations to Director, CRCL and his team for this recognition.
On the anti-smuggling front, last week, officers at Chennai Air Customs seized three postal parcels together containing 31 pieces of Gold Bars, weighing 0.42 Kgs. This detection of gold smuggling through postal imports is one of a kind. Such detections go a long way towards underscoring the vigilance of our officers in the challenging postal environment.
Last week, the Directorate of Systems and Data Management together with the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics (NACIN), Zonal Training Institute, Delhi organized a two day BootCamp on ADVAIT utilities for officers posted in various wings of the Board.
The session was well attended and provided an opportunity for the officers to enhance their digital capabilities. This is a piece of a series of initiatives taken by the Directorate of Systems and Data Management to socialize the use of analytics and to spread the culture of data-driven decision making in the Department. More such sessions are in the works!
Till next week!
Yours Sincerely,
(Vivek Johri)
All Officers and Staff of Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs
