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]
DO No. 11/CH(IC)/2021
14th February, 2022
“The king must make arrangements for Yogakshema (welfare) of the populace by way of abandoning any laxity and by governing the state in line with Dharma, along with collecting taxes which are in consonance with the Dharma.”
Mahabharat, Shanti Parva Adhyaya, 72; Shlok 11
The above verses from the Mahabharat, succinctly bring out the expectations from an ideal tax administrator – collecting due taxes with compassion and integrity. We would do well to keep these ethea in mind.
Enhanced use of technology is perhaps the surest way to achieve this. Last week, the Directorate General of Systems and Data Management presented a suite of ADVAIT applications intended for use by Ranges, Divisions & Commissionerates. The utilities provide a rich resource for analyzing trends and ensuring compliance. Information about the reports, grouped by suggested target users, will be made available in Antarang. These reports can be used directly for these formations to carry out their day-to-day work. Please incorporate them in your daily work schedule and provide feedback to the ADVAIT team about future improvements.
Continuing with our focus to leverage technology for taxpayer facilitation, the week gone by saw the Directorate General of Systems and Data Management enable the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) at the Haldibari Railway Station in Coochbehar, West Bengal. This heralds a new chapter in India-Bangladesh trade in pursuance of the opening of Haldibari-Chilahati rail route between the two countries.
Moving ahead, Customs House Laboratory, Kolkata under the Central Revenues Control Laboratory (CRCL) has been granted accreditation by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). The accreditation is for chemical testing in accordance with the relevant ISO standards. With this, nine of our laboratories now have NABL accreditation. Kudos to Pr. Commissioner & HOD (Revenue Laboratories) and his team for their hard work.
With a view to enhancing the security and efficacy of clearances of unaccompanied passenger baggage and Postal packages, an advanced X-Ray scanning system was inaugurated at the ICD Whitefields, Bengaluru and the Foreign Post Office, Bengaluru respectively.
On the anti-evasion side, CGST Commissionerate, Gandhidham booked a case of irregular availment of Input Tax Credit (ITC) on ‘Base Oil’ by certain Transporters in Kutch who are reported to have been illegally using such ‘Base Oil’ as automotive fuel. Further, such misuse is environmentally egregious. It is reported that the total inadmissible ITC availed is in excess of Rs. 13 Crore and that an amount of Rs. 5.80 Crore has been recovered till date.
We can’t go on together
With suspicious minds (suspicious minds)
And we can’t build our dreams
On suspicious minds
So if an old friend I know
Stops by to say hello
Would I still see suspicion in your eyes?
I am reminded of these words from a popular song of yesteryears as we take a significant step towards resolving various long pending issues in our cadre management. The final seniority list of Assistant Commissioners of Customs & Indirect Taxes [Group A of IRS (C&IT)] appointed/promoted against the vacancy year 2002-03 to 2012-13 as on 01.01.2021 has been circulated. This is a significant step towards ensuring timely and regular promotions to a large number of batches and will help provide better avenues for professional growth of the cadre.
Kudos to DG, HRD and her team for their tireless work. Congratulations are also due to Commissioner (Coordination) and his team as well as Ad. II Section of the Board for their efforts. Since this has been a long winding exercise, I would like to take the opportunity to place on record my appreciation for all officers from the Directorate General of Human Resource Development, past and present who brought the list to fruition.
Till next week!
Yours Sincerely,
(Vivek Johri)
All Officers and Staff of Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs
