GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
CENTRAL BOARD OF EXCISE AND CUSTOMS
New Delhi
Vanaja N. Sarna
Chairman, CBEC
DO.No.03/CH(EC)/2017, Dated 13th April, 2017
Dear Colleagues
In this weekly newsletter, at the outset, I would like to congratulate all officers and staff of CBEC for putting in their best efforts resulting in exceeding the Revised Estimates (RE) for the financial year (FY) 2016-17 set by the government. As per the provisional figures, indirect tax collections are at Rs. 8,63,394 crore against the RE of Rs. 8,50,000 crore, which shows a robust growth of about 22% over actual receipts in FY 2015-16.
In the current FY 2017-18, the indirect tax budget estimate (BE) has been pegged at Rs. 9.25 lakh crore, which I am confident you all will strive to achieve and continue to maintain high standards in indirect tax administration and facilitation of taxpayers at every level.
This week, I am happy to inform that a proposal for promotion of 1981-82 batch to the Apex Grade has been sent to UPSC. Also, the proposal for 1993-96 batches for promotion to the grade of Commissioner is presently in DoPT for approval of ACC.
As you are aware, the reorganization of the field formations of CBEC has been approved and the notifications for the new formations are planned to be issued in the first week of May, 2017. This reorganization may put pressure on some of the existing infrastructure and may require setting up of new infrastructure. May I request that action be taken to identify and move such proposals at the earliest? For your information, at present, 86 infrastructure projects are pending approval at various levels, of which 17 are being monitored by the Revenue Secretary and 10 by Member (Admn.). One of the main reasons observed for delay in getting approvals is that the queries raised are not being responded to by the field formations in time. I urge you to kindly expedite any pending replies at your level.
In my last letter, I had urged all of you to carry out GST outreach programmes at the local level, so that we cover the entire length and breadth of the country. To implement this, zonal Chief Commissioners have now been requested to utilize an amount of Rs. 1 crore out of the funds under the “O.E. General” Head for this purpose. Please use these funds for extensive outreach programmes for educating taxpayers on the legal and procedural aspects and the compliance expected under GST.
At this point, I urge you to take this opportunity to project our department as the prime facilitator for taxpayers in their migration to GST. This is the time to make our presence felt. Efforts made in the direction of taxpayers education and facilitation in the coming months will hold us in good stead with various stakeholders.
I am also happy to note that the Service Tax Mumbai Zone has formulated certain best practices for Additional Revenue Mobilization in Service Tax with the help of Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). This compilation has been circulated to all Chief Commissioners by my colleague Sh. S. Ramesh, Member(CBEC) vide his letter dated 11.04.2017. Please make full use of these and also share best practices being followed in your formations with others so that they can have a pan India impact.
With warm wishes,
Yours sincerely,
(Vanajs N. Sarna)
To
All officers and staff of Central Board of Excise and Customs
