Page 33 - ELT_1st September 2020_Vol 373_Part 5

DIGITAL DRIVE IN FOREIGN TRADE —
A BIG PUSH TO REFORM IN TAX
ADMINISTRATION
By
Debasish Bandyopadhyay, B.Com., LL.B., PGDFM

In order to reduce the physical interaction with
the trade during the wake of ongoing COVID-19 emer-
gency across the country, the Government has been des-
perately pushing the digitization initiatives in order to
achieve the intended goal of procedural reform in tax
administration. Accordingly, Government has launched “faceless assessment” in
Customs procedure through the next generation reform mission i.e. “Turant Cus-
toms”, which is a comprehensive package of many essentials that are to be im-
plemented from time-to-time in a phased manner. Accordingly, C.B.I. & C. vide
Circular No. 28/2020-Cus., dated 5-6-2020 launched the 1st phase of ‘Faceless Assess-
ment’ from 8-6-2020 at Bengaluru and Chennai Customs. Moreover, two Notifica-
tions No. 50/2020-Cus. (N.T.) and No. 51/2020-Cus. (N.T.) both dated 5-6-2020 were
issued by the Board in order to introduce the faceless assessment at Bengaluru
and Chennai from 8th June, 2020.
In furtherance to the aforesaid mission, certain functionalities has al-
ready been made operational from 6-7-2020 in ICEGATE, which would reduce
the need for physical interaction between Customs and the trade. In continuation
of these efforts, the Government has come up with more trade facilitation
measures in order to achieve the utmost efficiency in the Customs and DGFT
processes.

Paperless Customs
In a way to promote the ‘Faceless, Contactless, Paperless Customs’ in the
realm of cross-border trade, C.B.I. & C. has decided to take the reform agenda
forward by issuance of Circular No. 30/2020-Cus., dated 22-6-2020 whereby certain
procedural simplifications such as doing away with the requirement of accepting
bulky documents in printouts from the Service Centre or maintenance of
voluminous physical dockets in the Custom Houses were launched and
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