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
13th December, 2021
DO No. 02/CH(IC)/2021
The last three decades have been a period of far reaching change in India. As the economy has transformed, so has Governance and the Government. I have had the opportunity not just to be a ringside witness to this change but also to actively participate in it in different capacities during this period.
The Central Indirect Tax Administration has rightly been at the vanguard of this change particularly through a sustained reengineering of its business processes so as to make them much more technology driven and trade facilitative. Despite remarkable success, the agenda is far from accomplished. There is an urgent need for all of us to assess whether we have sufficiently acquired the knowledge base and the skill sets to make this happen – whether in the area of soft-skills, auditing, data interpretation skills or any other.
A famous historical figure once presciently remarked, that the empires of the future will be empires of the mind. The adage was perhaps never as true as it is now. Going forward, my vision for CBIC is one where each one of is adequately equipped, empowered and eager to give their best, so as to provide an efficient and friendly tax administration driven by technology, innovation and passion.
To that end, I propose to begin an initiative, called Navachar, whereby regardless of designation, age or seniority, you may share your suggestions, ideas and innovations on any area of work, directly with the Board. You may write to my office at chairman-cbicoffice@gov.in.in, citing Navachar in the subject line. Suggestions may please be limited to inputs that will help take us in the broad direction outlined above and issues such as individual service matters or grievances may kindly be taken up in other fora.
Going forward, I am happy to share that the administrative approval and expenditure sanction of Rs 729.68 Crore for construction of the New Campus of NACIN at Palasamudram, near Hindupur, Andhra Pradesh has been received. Spread across 500-acres of land, the academy aspires to be a Green Campus with 5-Star GRIHA rating and to achieve self-reliance in energy and water.
The Furbisher Course for the Officer Trainees of the 71st Batch of IRS (C86IT) was inaugurated last week. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Pr. DG, NACIN and his team of officers for successfully conducting training of the batch braving the odds of the pandemic. It was very refreshing for me to interact with these young minds – raring to go and willing to take on any challenge. Some of them already had valuable inputs to share. I wish them the very best in their careers.
This week also saw the passing out of the second batch of the youngest members of the CBIC family, the Customs Narcotics K9s! Their seniors have already made impressive detections in their very first year and have set high standards for them.
In our commitment to trade facilitation and ease of doing business, a revamped tax information portal was launched on the 7th of December, 2021. The portal serves as a repository of updated information pertaining to Customs, GST, Central Excise and the erstwhile Service Tax Laws and is intended as a handy tool for both taxpayers as well as departmental officers. I would urge you to use the Portal and share your feedback/ suggestions at feedback.taxinfo@icegate.gov.in.
My colleagues in the Board and I had a highly productive interaction with Chiefs of Zones and Directorates last week. Some of the actionable points that emerged during the interaction were the need to speed up Adjudications; expediting disposal of seized Gold and to enhance the use of data analytical tools for targeted and effective interventions. On the HR side, timely finalization of departmental Inquires was stressed. I hope Zonal CCs will give their personal attention to liquidate pending cases in a time bound manner.
I am happy to note that the CBIC Centre for Excellence organized a training of Master Trainers for GST Audit jointly for CGST and SGST officers posted in Jaipur, Delhi, Chandigarh and Panchukla CGST Zones. The purpose of this training is that they learn from each other through sharing of experience and expertise. More such training of master trainers are planned. I urge the officers nominated for these programmes to participate actively and ensure their success.
On the anti-evasion front, as always, our officers remained ever vigilant to detect leakages of revenue and to apprehend the delinquent. DGGI, Ahmedabad has reported a case of evasion in which ITC on input services were availed in respect of services supplied to their own registrations located in other states and having same PAN. This resulted in short payment of GST of Rs 320.08 Cr. The entire differential tax of Rs 320.08 Crore has since been discharged.
On the Customs side, I am informed that the Air Intelligence Unit at Mumbai Airport intercepted two foreign nationals for attempting to smuggle 35 Kgs of Heroin in specially made cavities of trolley bags. This week also saw significant seizures of smuggled foreign origin cigarettes. Officers from Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate, Kolkata interdicted 2,00,000 sticks of smuggled foreign origin cigarettes. Further, in a well coordinated operation, Officers of Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate, Jodhpur seized 3,87,200 sticks of smuggled foreign origin cigarettes. Subsequently officers of Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate, Delhi effected seizures of 6,00,000 sticks of smuggled foreign origin Cigarettes.
Officers of the Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate, Delhi also destroyed 5.021 Kg of Heroin on 09.12.2021 through electric incineration, following all environmental regulations. Giving wide publicity to incineration of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances was one of the key actionable points that had emerged during the Hon’ble FM’s recent interactions with officers.
With winter peaking in most parts of the country, there is a nip in the air. Please take care of yourself and your loved ones at this time.
Yours Sincerely,
(Vivek Johri)
All Officers and Staff of Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs
