The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Wednesday announced the establishment of four interim boards to take care of pending applications filed to settle customs and excise related matters before the Customs Central Excise Settlement Commission, which stands abolished from April 1.

The move is in line with an announcement in this regard in the last budget.

The boards are expected to operate temporarily until a permanent dispute resolution framework is finalised.

The four interim boards will be operational in Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata, the CBIC said.

The amendments in the customs rules to tighten checks on goods imported under free trade agreements (FTAs) could make it harder for businesses to do imports at concessional duties and may increase compliance cost, economic think tank GTRI said on Sunday. However, it said the move would curb the misuse of FTAs as India has seen repeated instances where goods originating from non-FTA countries, such as China, were rerouted through FTA member countries like Vietnam or Singapore to exploit preferential duty benefits.

On March 18, the Ministry of Finance issued a notification, introducing amendments to the Customs (Administration of Rules of Origin under Trade Agreements) Rules, 2020 (CAROTAR).

The amendment replaces the term, "Certificate of Origin" (CoO), with a broader term, "Proof of Origin", across various rules and forms under the CAROTAR framework, the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs’(CBIC) ‘e-Office’ application services remain non-functional since February 9, primarily affecting Customs clearance process. A senior official in the CBIC told FE that the issue is likely to be resolved within the next two days, and till then officers in the Department have been asked to grant urgent approvals, or handle other business, through physical means.

e-Office is an application developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), to carry out office work of the CBIC electronically. The CBIC’s Directorate General of Performance Management (DGPM) oversees the functioning of the application.

Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC), spoke to Monika Yadav and Asit Ranjan Mishra in New Delhi about the need to amend rules in the Central Goods and Services Tax Act to overturn the Supreme Court’s (SC’s) order in the Safari Retreats case. Edited excerpts:

Can you explain why the retrospective amendment concerning Safari Retreats was introduced in the Budget when the government has already filed a review petition in the SC?

That was purely a drafting error in the Act. Despite the high court order in the Safari Retreats case, many could have claimed input tax credit, but very few did — so few they can be counted on one hand.

An amnesty scheme for customs, reduction in tax rates for individuals and Limited Liability Partnership firms, easier tax compliance, fast tracking of faceless appeals and a dedicated dispute resolution mechanism top India Inc's wishlist for the next Budget submitted to the government.

Representatives from all four key industry bodies, CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and PHDCCI, have put forth detailed recommendations with regard to the Budget, to be presented on February 1, 2025, in separate meetings held with top Finance Ministry officials.

Industry body FICCI sought the introduction of an "Amnesty Scheme under Customs" as a one-time settlement scheme to clear past dues, arguing that it will help the industry to reduce the baggage of litigation.

Similarly, Assocham has also pitched for the introduction of a comprehensive Tax Amnesty Scheme under Customs.

"A one-time settlement scheme to clear past litigations can be considered by the Government, on the lines similar to Sabka Vishwas Legacy Dispute Resolution Scheme, 2019 for pre-GST era indirect taxes and Vivad Se Vishwas for Income tax," Assocham stated.

The CBIC on Friday said it has reduced compliance burden for customs cargo service providers (CCSPs) by reducing number of days for insurance of stored goods and removing licence renewal process for AEO-compliant entities.

In a statement, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said these measures aim to reduce operational costs and compliance burdens for CCSPs, that play a crucial role in handling of imported and exported goods. It would also improve efficiency of EXIM operations and facilitate global trade.

The CBIC has notified reduction in the number of days for insurance of stored goods by amending the Customs Areas Regulations, 2009, which require CCSPs to insure goods stored in Customs areas for a period of 10 days in terms of Handling of Cargo.

It has been notified to reduce it to 5 days as a trade facilitation measure. "This will enhance the cash flow for the entities by reducing the cost," the statement said.

The CBIC has asked customs field formations to disclose the specific nature of inquiry being undertaken while issuing letters/summons in export/import fraud cases and also complete investigations within a year. In an instruction, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said officers must maintain a "balanced" approach during an investigation into tax evasion in import or export of goods -- generally referred to as commercial intelligence/fraud (CI) cases -- to avoid disruption in ease of doing business.

The CBIC said before initiating an investigation, it is desirable that an analysis of all information, and cross-checking available data be undertaken to minimise interface with the importer/exporter.

Within the jurisdiction of the commissionerate, the commissioner is responsible for developing and approving any intelligence, investigation, and its completion.

"A CI case investigation must reach the earliest conclusions which is normally not more than a year," the CBIC said in the instruction issued on November 1.

CBIC Chairman Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said the guidelines underline the approach of minimal disruption during investigations of CI fraud cases.

In a bid to reach out to industry and limit the possible overreach of tax authorities in investigations, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has instructed the Customs field formations to maintain “balance” while carrying out investigations for tax evasion related to import and export of goods in the interest of “ease of doing business”. In the set of instructions issued on November 1, the CBIC said such evasion cases are categorised as commercial intelligence and fraud cases and they need to be differentiated from outright smuggling cases which involve contraband items.

The CBIC has asked the field formations to not approve any such investigation without the approval of the commissioner and conclude investigation into commercial intelligence (CI) cases within a year. The Board has also asked officers to seek information and documents in CI matters in writing with full disclosure of the specific nature of the inquiry being initiated by the authorities.

“The Commissioner is responsible for developing and approving any intelligence, investigation and its completion. Each investigation must be initiated only after the approval of the Commissioner. A CI case investigation must reach the earliest conclusion which is normally not more than one year,” the instructions issued by the Investigation-Customs wing of the CBIC under the Ministry of Finance said.

The government is looking at bringing down the number of customs duty levies to five from about a dozen presently, as part of the duty rationalisation exercise, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said on Wednesday. The reduction in the number of customs rates will help reduce classification disputes, he said when asked about the Budget proposal for a comprehensive review of the rate structure in six months.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech said the government will undertake a comprehensive review of the customs rate structure over the next six months to rationalise and simplify it for ease of trade, removal of duty inversion and reduction of disputes.

To address backlogs and expedite resolution of cases, tax experts and industry executives have asked the government for the capacity expansion of the Customs Authority for Advance Ruling (CAAR), which currently has only two benches in the country, in Delhi and Mumbai.

Sources say that several representations from the industry have been made regarding the same to the finance ministry in the pre-Budget meetings, but the government is unlikely to announce any expansion in the upcoming Budget for 2024-25, set to be presented on Tuesday.

The Customs Authority for Advance Ruling (CAAR) is a legal body under section 28H of the Customs Act, 1962, that issues clarification and imparts certainty to the taxpayers by addressing doubts and concerns regarding the classification of goods, determination of customs valuation, and other related issues.

Ahead of the Budget, the government reduced import duties on smartphone components and spare parts to 10 per cent from 15 per cent earlier. The Ministry of Finance (MoF) announced this in an official gazette notification on January 30.
As part of the revision, tariffs on components such as battery covers, antennas, sealing gaskets, sim sockets, and others, included under the mechanics category, have been reduced. Similarly, import duties on die-cut components like LCD foam, conductive cloth, and sticker-battery slots, among others, have been slashed to 10 per cent.

Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra on Saturday said the customs department is developing a fully automated trade interface system, Customs 2.0, which would also help in improving its score in the World Bank’s ranking.Speaking on the International Customs Day 2024 celebrations, organised by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Malhotra said technology is going to be the main driver in improving customs processes.

The World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index 2023, which was released in April last year, had ranked Customs processes at 47th spot, down from 40th position in 2018. “India is on course to become the third largest economy surpassing GDP of USD 5 trillion. Yet we are ranked 47th out of 139 countries in the World Bank report’. There is a huge scope for improvement for us not only in terms of score but also in terms of ranking, Malhotra said.

While the changes in rates of income and corporate taxes, incorporated in the Budget announced on February 1, are effective from April 1 or a notified date, most of the changes in customs and excise duty rates become effective from midnight.

India’s Custom authorities are “actively deploying” cutting-edge technologies including big data analytics, artificial intelligence, image analytics to detect fraud and curb illegal trade, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Chairman Sanjay Agarwal said on Monday.

“The Indian customs administration is combining domain expertise with innovative technology to manage cargo related risks and ensure compliance effectively. A curated risk based approach is being deployed in processing and mitigating the identified risks associated with customs declaration while consciously striking a balance between enforcement and facilitation,” Agarwal said while speaking at the ‘Global Conference on Cooperation in Enforcement Matters’ organised by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.

The CBIC is mulling a comprehensive restructuring of the organisation, set up 6 decades ago, to make it more effective and remove overlapping, if any, as many of its functions have undergone transformation following introduction of new technologies, abolition of service tax and roll-out of GST which has subsumed several levies.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs or CBIC (formerly knows as Central Board of Excise and Customs) was set up in 1964.

The ministry of commerce is in talks with regulators and other departments to put in place systems that will level the field between exports through e-commerce and traditional channels, when it comes to tax refunds, a senior official said Tuesday.

“A lot of policy tweaking is required. Most of our trade regulations are designed for business-to-business (B2B) interface but e-commerce breaks that barrier and it is a scenario where B2C interface is higher,” Director General of Foreign Trade Santosh Kumar Sarangi said.


One big issue in exports through e-commerce, he said, is how sellers can get the benefit of remission of tax and duties, which traditional exporters do.

With the Electronic Cash Ledger facility for Customs duty payments facing hiccups after its launch earlier this month, the finance ministry has decided to postpone the next phase of the project by two months to June 30. The phase was to start on May 1.

Accordingly, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has given a three-month exemption to payments relating to baggage and international courier shipments from the ECL facility.


The exemption, which was till April 30, has not been extended till June 30, according to a CBIC notification.

About 20 days after its launch, the Electronic Cash Ledger (ECL) for payment of custom duty is now normalising although several exporters and importers continued to complain of problems, said the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.

“We are happy to announce that ECL is moving towards normalcy and is receiving more acceptance among users,” the CBIC said, adding that users made customs duty payments of `1,200 crore on Thursday.

The CBIC is likely to soon introduce a system of publishing daily currency exchange rates on the integrated customs portal, replacing the existing system of notifying rates fortnightly.

The move would help capture daily exchange rate fluctuations and help importers and exporters to precisely calculate customs duties based on daily exchange rate.

Currently, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) manually notifies exchange rates of 22 currencies every fortnight -- 1st and 3rd Thursday of a month -- based of rates obtained from the State Bank of India (SBI). The rate notified comes into effect from midnight of the following day.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has waived the entire interest payable for the period between April 1 and April 10 to importers on account of challenges owing to technical glitch linked to the electronic cash ledger (ECL).

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has decided to enable Electronic Cash Ledger (ECL) in phases for importers and exporters effective April 1. However the importers faced some difficulties in making payment.

After receiving complaints from importers, the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), the revenue secretary conducted a meeting asking the technology provider to fix the glitch.