DEST Practice 2

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, known as CBIC, is the apex policy-making body for customs, central excise, and Goods and Services Tax matters in India, functioning under the Department of Revenue within the Ministry of Finance. The Customs Department operating under CBIC is responsible for regulating the import and export of goods across all of India's international borders including seaports, airports, land customs stations, integrated check posts, and inland container depots spread across the country. The primary statutory functions of the department include the assessment and collection of customs duties on imported goods, the prevention of smuggling of prohibited and restricted goods, the enforcement of export controls on sensitive items, and the protection of intellectual property rights at the border through the seizure of counterfeit and pirated goods. The Customs Act of 1962 provides the comprehensive legal framework governing all customs operations, prescribing the powers of customs officers, the procedures for assessment, examination, and clearance of goods, the penalties for violations, and the rights of importers and exporters in adjudication and appeal proceedings. The Foreign Trade Policy issued periodically by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Commerce sets the parameters within which India's import and export trade is conducted, specifying the categories of goods that are freely importable, those that are restricted and require specific licences, and those that are prohibited from import or export entirely. The Export Promotion Capital Goods scheme allows manufacturers to import capital goods at concessional customs duty rates in return for a commitment to generate specified export earnings within a defined period, thereby supporting industrial investment and export competitiveness simultaneously. In recent years, the adoption of information technology has fundamentally transformed customs administration in India. The Indian Customs Electronic Data Interchange System, known as ICES, has been operational at major customs locations for many years and processes all import and export declarations electronically, facilitating risk-based selectivity in the examination and assessment of consignments rather than subjecting every shipment to physical inspection and detailed documentary scrutiny. The SWIFT programme, launched in 2016, integrates the customs clearance process with the regulatory inspections conducted by multiple other government agencies including the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, the Plant Quarantine authorities, the Drug Controller General of India, and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, creating a single-window interface through which importers and exporters can submit all regulatory compliances and receive integrated clearance. The Authorised Economic Operator programme, aligned with international standards set by the World Customs Organisation, certifies importers, exporters, and logistics service providers who meet high standards of security, compliance, and financial solvency, granting them priority treatment, faster clearance, reduced examination rates, and mutual recognition benefits in countries with which India has concluded AEO mutual recognition arrangements. The faceless assessment initiative, extended to customs in line with the income tax faceless assessment model, assigns import bills of entry to assessing officers across the country on a random basis rather than to the officer posted at the port of import, reducing personal interactions between importers and officers and improving uniformity and objectivity in duty assessment. India's commitments under the World Trade Organisation's Trade Facilitation Agreement, which entered into force in 2017, have required the government to implement a range of measures to reduce border crossing times, improve transparency in customs procedures, and enhance cooperation with the private sector on matters of customs compliance and facilitation. The Customs administration has also been strengthened to counter the smuggling of gold, narcotics, foreign currency, wildlife products, and counterfeit consumer goods across land borders and through sea and air ports, with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence serving as the primary anti-smuggling intelligence and investigation agency under CBIC.