Comments
The Customs department will celebrate the 60th year of the Customs Act from December 5 to 12 in adherence to the call given by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to enhance trade facilitation measures and ease of doing business for the trade. Trade facilitation has been a long-standing priority of the Government of India, which has sought to proactively improve its business regulatory climate as a part of the Make in India initiative, said M.V.S. Choudary, Chief Commissioner, Chennai Customs Zone, in this interview to businessline on how the department manoeuvred the Covid crisis and took various measures to help the trade in smooth clearances of cargo. Excerpts from the interview:
Chennai Customs digital makeover: MVS Choudary, Chief Commissioner
How did you handle the Covid crisis?
Covid-19 was a real challenge for us. All our staff worked like any other frontline workers on a 24X7 basis. We ensured that there was no disruption in the supply chain security. At the same time, we had to take care of the health and security of our officers. We were able to do a lot of facilitation measures to ensure that no cargo and no documents were held up. Sometimes, the cargo had to move from the warehouse, which was in the containment zones. At the Chief Commissioner’s office, we opened a 24X7 service where I myself personally coordinated any issue that came up in the way of the movement of the goods. This received widespread appreciation, not only from the trade, but even from our Finance Minister herself.
How was your revenue collection and movement of goods during Covid?
During the second wave and subsequent to that, we ensured that not even a minimum impact was there on the collection of our revenue and even on the movement of goods; any other facility or transaction an importer or exporter wanted to. We have ensured that existing refunds and drawbacks were disposed of in a very timely manner to improve the liquidity problem for importers and exporters. And we have been able to ensure a lot of e-web initiatives to enhance contactless, paperless transactions between Customs and trade and all these have helped in improving our efficiency.
What’s been the revenue collection so far this year?
As on November 27, the Chennai Customs Zone collected ₹67,974 crore, which is ₹12,188 crore in excess as compared with the same period last financial year. Chennai Customs is ₹425 crore ahead of the moving target.
What are the measures taken by Chennai Customs on trade facilitation and ease of doing business?
The Chennai Customs Zone has been a frontrunner in initiating Central Scanning Division Application, DPD Portal, IGST Refunds Module, Adjudication Module, Central Sampling Cell, and Electronic Cargo Tracking System. These have been well received in trade facilitation. We have 98-99 per cent digitisation and ensured that all official transactions are in e-Office and improved infrastructure facilities were given to officers and staff. We have initiated several welfare measures for our officers and ensured that the cost of transactions for import transport is minimised.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.