The Hindu Business Line : How are we doing, CBEC asks clients, partners, employees

Chennai May 1 Ever heard of a Government department going to its clients, partners and employees asking for feedback about its functioning and ways to improve the services offered?

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) would undertake an all-India survey to get an idea about not just the perceptions of its clients and employees but also about the factors that influence such perceptions. The results would help the department take corrective measures , according to Mr Yashodhan Parande, Director-General of Systems, Customs and Central Excise.

"This exercise is a first of its kind to be taken by a Government agency," he said.

The survey would assess the impact of various policy and procedural reforms by the Government; measure the levels of satisfaction with the services provided to importers, exporters, manufacturers, service providers and even international passengers, he said.

The three services of CBEC — Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax — would be covered in the survey, he told Business Line on the sidelines of a seminar on `Facilitation in logistics' organised by the Chennai Custom House Agents Association.

"We keep saying we are doing a good job. But we would like to know from our clients where we stand," he said.

The survey would identify the "needs that we are not fulfilling and services that the department would not have imagined," he said.

The CBEC is also considering inclusion of its employees and partners in operations such as port and airport authorities and designated banks. In broad terms, CBEC's clients and customers across the three services would be in the range of around Rs 10 lakh and its employees about 50,000 in number, he said.

Recommendations for the levels at which the responses should be evaluated would be — all India, zonal, local (within the four zones), service specific (Customs, Central Excise, Service Tax, Directorates), office-specific (within a local office) — so that CBEC can get a `threadbare' analysis of the results and factors influencing the results by going in for this kind of survey.

It is going to be a massive exercise covering the entire country and is likely to be over by 2008, he said.

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